Mahaweli and River Basin Development Minister Maithripala Sirisena today disclosed that the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has put a condition on the Sri Lankan government to agree to privatize water in order to receive ADB assistance.
He said the ADB wants to fix a price for water used by farmers to cultivate their fields. This has become an obstacle to preparing a national water management policy.
Addressing participants at a workshop on water management in Kandy today, the Minister said his government refused such conditions on receiving aid.
“We have been looking for assistance to draw up a scientifically viable water management policy and the Asian Development Bank’s agreement to provide financial aid in this respect has been there for about ten years (from 1995).
“We know there are several conditions put forward by the ADB to provide financial aid. This is why we could not draw up a national policy so far on water. Among the conditions put by the ADB included that we privatize water and charge money for water given to farmers for agricultural purpose. We totally refused to agree to such conditions.
“We are now planning to seek the views of the general public to bring about a national policy on water,” the Minister said.
He said the ADB wants to fix a price for water used by farmers to cultivate their fields. This has become an obstacle to preparing a national water management policy.
Addressing participants at a workshop on water management in Kandy today, the Minister said his government refused such conditions on receiving aid.
“We have been looking for assistance to draw up a scientifically viable water management policy and the Asian Development Bank’s agreement to provide financial aid in this respect has been there for about ten years (from 1995).
“We know there are several conditions put forward by the ADB to provide financial aid. This is why we could not draw up a national policy so far on water. Among the conditions put by the ADB included that we privatize water and charge money for water given to farmers for agricultural purpose. We totally refused to agree to such conditions.
“We are now planning to seek the views of the general public to bring about a national policy on water,” the Minister said.
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