The Mahaweli Authority also manages the Walawe basin whose headstream
and downstream climatology and geography are similar to that of the Mahaweli.
The Walawe basin is a simpler basin and serve as a pilot basin for research.
Back
Top
Current IRI Project
Following sustained interaction with the Directors of Environment and
Monitoring and Plan Implementation Units of the Mahaweli Authority in early
2000, a proposal was formulated and letters of understanding
on this proposal were exchanged between the Director-Generals of the Mahaweli
Authority of Sri Lanka and the IRI. Broadly, the project team seeks to
develop tools for the use of climate information for river basin system
management, to generate indices for droughts, floods and hazards and to
study various environmental impacts (floods, droughts, malaria) and societal
impacts (equity, communication of forecasts) of climate. The
project has been funded by the IRI and the Mahaweli Authority (Office
Support and Local Travel).
Progress of the Current Project
In the seven months since the project proposal was accepted, we have
developed
our partnership with the Mahaweli authorities, collected data and literature,
studied the ENSO sensitivity of climate and rice production in Sri Lanka
and are progressing towards a comprehensive forecasting system. The coverage
of Sri Lanka by the IRI forecasting system and its skill is relatively
good. Lareef Zubair visited the river basin in August 2000 to initiate
the project. The local authorities were found to be quite helpful
and to have adequate infrastructure to support our work.
Anticipated Output by the End of 2001
Towards the end of this year, our output should include
ˇ Tailored climate and stream flow forecasts for Mahaweli and Walawe
ˇ Forecasts for water availability in the Upper Mahaweli and Walawe Basins
ˇ Studies on Climate Variability and Impacts in Mahaweli and
Walawe (on Rice and Tea production and Malaria)
