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Good practice Imported

Cascaded Tank-Village System Restoration, North Central Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka · Anuradhapura · See the Sri Lanka profile

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 58% 40/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Sri Lanka's 2,000-year-old cascaded tank irrigation network, an FAO-designated agricultural heritage system since 2017, is being restored under a GEF/UNEP-backed programme after decades of neglect, chemical soil degradation and invasive species.

Details

Promoter
Sri Lanka Ministry of Environment, with GEF, UNEP and the Alliance of Bioversity International & CIAT
Period
system built over ~2,000 years; FAO GIAHS designation 2017; "Healthy Landscapes" restoration ongoing
Keywords
water management, agriculture, biodiversity, cultural heritage, irrigation

Context

Sri Lanka's Cascaded Tank-Village System, built over nearly two millennia, chains small reservoirs within a micro-catchment to store and distribute water in the dry zone; it was recognised by the FAO as a Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System in 2017.

Activities

The Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT is running a 'Healthy Landscapes' restoration programme with Sri Lanka's Ministry of Environment, GEF and UNEP, and restored cascades have enabled farmers to establish local seed banks.

Conclusions

Many tank cascades have been neglected for decades — poor management, chemical-fertiliser and pesticide overuse, invasive aquatic plants and worsening drought — and available sources document the problem in more detail than the scale of restoration achieved to date.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Medium (€50k–€500k) — GEF/UNEP-backed 'Healthy Landscapes' restoration programme; project-level budget not itemised in reviewed sources.
Time to results
Long (> 3 years) — FAO GIAHS designation 2017; restoration ongoing under the Healthy Landscapes programme.
Staffing & skills
Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT restoration-programme staff, Sri Lanka Ministry of Environment

Conditions for success

  • GEF/UNEP financing
  • FAO GIAHS heritage recognition (2017) raising visibility

Common failure modes

  • decades of neglect, chemical soil degradation and invasive species prior to restoration
  • no hectare/tank restoration-scale data published

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Data sources

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