Pre-empting water conflicts in Sri Lanka
Five years after the end of the bloody Civil War in Sri Lanka, its research community, local administrators and government work together to deal with the contamination of wells and groundwater systems in Jaffna.
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Two hundred representatives of the different sectors gathered in Jaffna April 18-19 to discuss various forms of water conflicts. The workshop, organized by the NORHED project "Water and Society - Asia», was the first in a series of similar events which will gather the stakeholders for lectures and discussions with experts within the project.
Workshop with credits
Over two hundred researchers and students at all levels from six universities in Sri Lanka, national water authorities, ministries and local authorities in Jaffna and the Northern Province took part in the workshop. UiB’s Tore Sætersdal and Harsha Ratnaweera from UNMB represented the Norwegian partner institutions. The workshop was hosted by Jaffna University.
No one is sure what caused the contamination of the groundwater, but the challenge raises many issues around access to clean water. Water purification and the energy intensive process of desalination the purification of seawater to freshwater were topics that received great attention, also beyond the water professions. A new desalination plant is about to open for testing in Jaffna.
Almost a hundred students at Jaffna University who took part in the workshop, departed with assignments as part of their coursework. The students at all levels have three months to deliver their reports which will be assessed towards their course credits.
Linking Asian and African water issues
"Water and Society - Asia" is led by the largest and oldest university in Sri Lanka, Peradeniya University in Kandy. It is a twin project with "Water and Society - Africa", which will organize a similar workshop in Nairobi in the autumn. Participants of the two projects will meet in Oslo and Bergen in July for the annual meeting with Norad.
Both projects have received funding under Norad’s Programme for Capacity Development in Higher Education and Research for Development (NORHED). The NORHED programme seeks to build institutional capacity and competence for teaching and research.
A joint kick-off was held at the University of Peredeniya in Sri Lanka earlier this year with representatives from all the eleven partner institutions present: Makerere University, Addis Ababa University, Nairobi University, Juba University, University of Peredeniya, University of Jaffna, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Institute of Technology of Cambodia, Telemark University College, the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, and UiB.
