Village Tank Cascade Systems

A Traditional Technology of Drought and Water Management in Sri Lanka

C.M. Madduma Bandara University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka

UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) adopts the following definition of Traditional knowledge: Traditional knowledge consists of practical and normative knowledge concerning the ecological, socio-economic and cultural environment. Traditional knowledge originates from people and is transmitted by recognizable and experienced actors. It is systematic experimental and handed down from generation to generation and culturally enhanced. Such a kind of knowledge support diversity and enhances and reproduces local resources

UNESCO and ICSU endorsed the following statement: The local and traditional knowledge system, as the dynamic expression of perceiving and understanding the world can give and historically has given, a valuable contribution to science and technology. For this reason there is a need to preserve, protect, research this cultural heritage and empirical knowledge

Using traditional knowledge does not mean to reapply directly techniques of the past, rather to understand the logic and principles behind them. It allowed societies in the past to manage ecosystems in balance, to carry out outstanding technical, artistic and architectural feats which are universally admired and has always been able to renew and adapt itself. Traditional knowledge is also a dynamic and time-tested system able to incorporate innovation, and achieved local and environmental sustainability. Therefore the DRH may treat DK as advanced innovative knowledge appropriate to elaborate a new technological paradigm based on the progressive values or the wisdom of the tradition. Wisdom arises from a combination of knowledge and experience. Therefore the use of the term traditional wisdom connotes a broader meaning than mere knowledge. It also means the distilling of more positive and progressive elements of traditional knowledge, leaving out and negative or retrogressive aspects.

The appreciation, protection and promotion of traditional knowledge or traditional wisdom for nature conservation, art, architecture and agriculture had been progressively advanced during the last few decades. However, the present attempt towards the application of traditional wisdom in seeking solutions for disaster management is relatively a new direction with much potential. It may be easier to understand the technologies available in different parts of the world. But the actual principles behind them may defy comprehension for some time.

A Poetic Perception
Robert Frost (1874-1963)
Two Roads diverged in a yellow wood And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the under growth Then took the other, just as fair, Because it was grassy and want of wear In leaves no step had trodden back I doubted if I should ever come back Two roads diverged in a wood, and I Took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference

Sri Lanka, as an Island located near the southern tip of India and the Asian Continent and in the core area of the South Asian Monsoon has developed its own unique forms of hydraulic civilization

Sri Lanka

The Culture of the Island was primarily dominated by Indian influences. However, due to its insular nature, it has also developed its own unique forms of Indigenous, language, custom, attire, agriculture irrigation, architecture and culture

Civilizations whose agriculture was dependent upon large-scale waterworks for irrigation and flood control were called "hydraulic civilizations" by the German-American historian Karl A. Wittfogel in his book Oriental Despotism (1957). Wittfogel believed that such "hydraulic civilizations" were quite different from those of the West.

Irrigation technology in Sri Lanka existed here even before the advent of Vijaya the Indian Prince (500BC) when the Island was occupied by the early indigenous people. The legend and folklore maintains that Kuveni the queen of Lanka at that time was found by the Prince while engaged in knitting on a tank bund. Historical maps indicate tanks built by the Yakkas (early people) such as Soraborawewa and ancient canals such as Yakabendi ela. Later in History much larger systems like the Yoda Wewa and Yoda Elas were developed. Thus the main Yoda Ela took water from the Kala Oya to Anuradhapura by a canal having a gradient of half a foot to the mile which even today with modern technology is difficult to achieve with such precsion.

Large or small, the tanks are generally assumed to be the work of a centralised state bureaucracy - and hence it is argued that their silting up and subsequent abandonment can be explained by the breakdown of the State. That view, however, is not shared by Edmund Leach, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Cambridge and a leading authority on irrigation agriculture in Sri Lanka. Leach argues that although the large tanks may have been the work of a bureaucracy, the small village tanks most decidedly were not. Indeed, his own research leads him to conclude that the Wittfogel hypothesis of a central bureaucracy is quite inapplicable to Sri Lanka. Large-scale works were monuments not utilitarian structures."

A symbol of a multihooded Cobra is discovered in many sites of ancient irrigation and water works. Some believe that it was an insignia of a Naga (early people) line of royalty that was well versed in the hydraulic arts and sciences or a totem of a naga tribe skilled in hydraulic engineering
Multi-hooded Cobra Symbol at Naindanawa Temple, Ma Eliya

Let not a single drop of water go waste into the sea without benefiting the world King Parakramabahu, 12th Century AD The Recycling Principle Behind the Tank Cascade Systems

Sri Lanka is covered with a network of thousands of manmade lakes and ponds, known locally as 'tanks' (after 'tanque', the Portuguese word for 'reservoir'). Some are truly massive; many are thousands of years old: and almost all show a high degree of sophistication in their construction and design. Indeed, Emmerson Tennent, the 19th century historian, is fulsome in his admiration for those who built them. In particular, he marvels at the numerous channels which were dug underneath the bed of each lake in order to ensure that the flow of water was "constant and equal as long as any water remained in the tank". Frequently, he notes, those channels had to be cut through solid granite with the most rudimentary of tools: "Their ruins present illustrations of determined perseverance, undeterred by the most discouraging of difficulties and unrelieved by the slightest appliance of ingenuity to diminish the toil of excavation."

Village tank settlements, have always been the backbone of the Rajarata Civilization from ancient times. These small tanks find their best expression across the various landscapes of the Rajarata reflecting the essence of Parakramabahu Philosophy. At the same time, the small tank systems have always occupied a priority place in our national heritage and conscience. It symbolized our earliest sedentary human settlement with the well known cultural trinity - the Wewa, Wela and the Dagaba.

Several different types of tank were built - some of which had nothing to do with irrigation per se but all of which had a critical role to play in the practice of irrigation agriculture. It was, for example, traditional to build a forest tank in the jungle above the village. That tank, however, was not used to irrigate land: on the contrary, its express purpose was to provide water to wild animals and, hence, to reduce the likelihood that they would descend into the paddy fields and destroy the crops in the search for water. Other tanks included: The mountain tank, which was built to provide water for 'chena' or slash-and-burn agriculture - a vernacular form of farming now frowned upon (if not actually discouraged) by the authorities. The erosion control tank, or 'pota wetiye', which was so designed that any silt was deposited in it before entering the main water storage tanks. Several erosion control tanks were associated with each village irrigation system. All were built in such a way that they could easily be de-silted. The storage tank, of which, traditionally, there were two - one being used whilst the other was being repaired. For that reason, such tanks were known as 'twin tanks'. The village tank, of which there was one for each village that depended upon a particular irrigation system. All such tanks were connected by canals to the twin tanks.

A Landscape in which the Cascade Systems were evolved

Cascades of Village Tanks above the Nachchaduwa Reservoir near the ancient Capital City of Anuradhapura
When the central government was disrupted and the major tanks fell into disrepair, village life could carry on quite adequately. Each village still possessed its own small-scale irrigation system which was maintained by the villagers themselves."

A closer view of a village tank in a cascade

Brodie (1856) Manual of the NCP

A portion of the field of suitable size is selected and all the rest is abandoned. The selected portion is now divided into the same number of shares in the whole field.The persons whose land is thus selected do not get larger allotments than others Each bethma arrangement is binding only for one crop, and when it has been removed matters revert to their original position. Quite often the paddy tract selected for bethma was that lying close to the tank bund, thus helping to minimize conveying losses and to conserve available irrigation water..The division of paddy lands into baga and the scattered and fragmented nature of blocks made the land allocation under bethma easy.

Tank Reservation Village Tank

Parks and Forests

Tank Bund Area for Birds Homesteads

Rice Fields Parks and Forests

Kurulu paluwa (or the bird damage area ) is another important component of man made agro-ecosystem types. This means a strip of cultivated rice land adjacent to a highland forest primarily dedicated to birds. Although its exact function is not clear, it is probably left without harvesting for birds to feed on as bird damage area. This would have somewhat minimized avian crop damage in the main tracts. It would have also have minimized rice plant pests as birds feed on them, too. This is a fine example that shows how the early people knew through experience the importance of biodiversity and how to harness it while conserving it.

Cascades of village tanks nestled inside Mini- watersheds reflect water management skills of the ancient people

A cascade is a connected series of tanks organized within a micro-(or meso-) catment of the dry zone landscape, storing, conveying and utilizing water from an ephemeral rivulet.
(Madduma Bandara 1985)

The Dissemination of the Technology may have occurred in the following Ways * By sheer necessity created by recurrent droughts By trial and error over a long period of time (suffering experience from droughts as recorded in history) * By groups of people well versed in the art and science of irrigation (Eg. Wannihuru) * By tradition through word of mouth from generation to generation By village leaders and officials (Vel Vidane, Wew Lekam & Kele Korale)

* By observation (by kinship patterns, and travel as in the case of pilgrimages

Management of Minor Irrigation Systems was intimately associated with their physical development and the evolution of rural settlements. The early management systems buried in the history are still improperly understood. There is only sketchy and rudimentary evidence indicating the ownership, obligations, penalties and taxation. It is known that that private ownership of tanks existed as reflected in the use of the term vapihamika, where the management was done privately. During the pre-colonial era, community owned minor irrigation systems were operated and managed by the community through the Rajakariya System. The responsibility rested with the chief of the village (Gamarala) and the Gamsabhawa the Village Council. The abolition of the Rajakariya System by the British in 1832 has resulted in the neglect of village irrigation systems as well as the upkeep of rural infrastructure such as roads. Realizing the mistake of abolishing Rajakariya, British enacted the Paddy Lands Irrigation Ordinance in 1856. However, the damage done by that time was irreparable both in the physical infrastructure as well as in the mentality of the farming communities

The hydraulic civilization that developed to its zenith during the first millennium began to collapse around the 12th Century. The reasons for this catastrophe remain still less properly understood. It represents an area where many imaginations have wandered. Some attribute it to foreign invasions, but others to malaria, climate change, depletion of soil fertility, and even to a combination of factors and a pull and push mechanism that eventually attracted the people to the wet zone and the hill country. There are hardly any scientific investigations into this phenomenon. It is the historian and the archaeologist who provide a qualitative interpretation of events.

Kamala Markandaya (1954)

Nature is like a wild animal that you have trained to work for you. So long as you are vigilant and walk warily with thought and care, so long will it give you its aid. But look away for an instant, be heedless or forgetful, it has you by the throat

Paranavitane,S. (1960)

Attributed the collapse to the annihilation of the leaders of the community who had the know how of manageging irrigation systems were wiped out by the invading forces. People were left as a heard of sheep without their shephards. The manhood left to propagate the race must have not been the fittest and the most vgorous, and their progeny in the subsequent generations did not possess the necessary stamina of mind and body to cope with the difficult situations that they were faced with..

Roads Murphy (1957)

Attributed the collapse to a combination of factors, including climate, malaria and soil salinity and alkalinity.

Most traditional technologies cannot be treated in isolation. They often form part of a wider ecological and social system that nurtures them and sustains them over long periods of time. The tank cascade systems harbour within them a variety of subsystems. 1. The ecological system with catchment forests, aquatic habitats, and commons 2. Elaborate water management systems including, sluices, spills, water control Wiers (Karahankota) and rotational water distribution systems 3. Agricultural systems combining, paddy lands, chena and home gardens and animal husbandry and governed by a traditional crop calendar and a fitting land use pattern 4. Social systems with established institutions and leadership structures. 5. Cultural and spiritual norms that respected life in its all forms that promoted simple living and avoidance of conflict

An Answer to Drought Hazard?

As a rainwater harvesting technology As a soil moisture and groundwater maintaining technology As a soil erosion and siltation control technology A technology that ensured the maintenance of ecological balance A technology that promoted social cohesion and need for community leadership A system that accommodated spiritual development which promoted egalitarian attitudes that helped in passing through the difficult times during the drought A system that nurtured the development of drought insurance through animal husbandry and fragmented land ownership Tanks provided opportunities for inland fishing and nutrition

Current Relevance
Global climate change may have local adverse impacts (increasing drought proneness Increasing incidence of poverty Increasing out-migration from the affected rural areas to cities Rural mal-nutrition to be mitigated through tank fishing and animal husbandry Health issues related to drinking water, eating tank-fish contaminated by agro-chemicals (Eg. Cadmium) received by tanks. Kidney failure and malaria) Ecological issues such as the clearance of village forests and unsustainable land use. Break-down of old social order (cohesion, kinship, leadership, norms and values Disappearance of the traditional institutional arrangenments

Areas for Improvement

Recognition of the cascade principle by modern engineers The challenge for developing cascade based (not just village-based) management structures Need for mitigating the adverse effects of globalization Challenge for developing modern forms of market oriented agriculture Need for assimilating modern technologies such as drip-and sprinkler irrigation into cascade systems Re-adjustment of land use and land tenure to suit current socio-economic realities without destroying the cascade principle The need for preserving the ecological system that sustained the cascade technology for many generations.

And gave it for his opinion, that. who ever could make two ears of corn, or two blades of grass, to grow upon a spot of ground where only one grew before, would deserve the better of mankind, and do more essential service to his country, than a whole race of politicians put together. Jonathan Swift 1667-1745

Thank you for your Attention