News
Dutch company gets large contract for groundwater monitoring
A Dutch company has secured a multimillion euro (Rs 4.4bn) pilot project to establish a ‘groundwater monitoring network’ for the Malwathu Oya, Maduru Oya and Kumbukkan Oya basins–three areas identified as being most susceptible to chronic kidney disease (CKD).
The project envisages the drilling of 150 boreholes to install devices that will collect real time data such as groundwater levels, nitrate concentration and pH values. This will be directly transmitted to a data management centre at the Water Resources Board (WRB) and processed. A daily forecast on the country’s groundwater situation is also being planned.
The Netherlands-based M/ Eijekelkamp Earth Sampling Group first submitted its unsolicited proposal to the Sri Lankan Government in 2013. Two years later, after the change of government, it was again taken up for consideration by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Management (CCEM) headed by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, show documents obtained under the Right to Information Act.
While the original proposal was for a full-scale network covering the whole country and costing around 32mn euros, the Government opted for a pilot project priced (inclusive of local taxes) at around 23.3mn euros.
The smaller initiative is a massive 65 percent of the total cost of the full-scale project. But the price has been justified on several grounds, including that Eijkelkamp has absorbed a nine percent cost escalation that took place since its first bid was submitted. The project will be funded through a loan from the Rabobank Netherlands backed by Atradius DSB, the Dutch export credit agency. Repayment will be over 15 years with a grace period of three years.
Groundwater conditions vary considerably throughout Sri Lanka, a project committee report states. In some areas, there are shallow aquifers which are replenished fast during rainy season or from nearby surface water sources. This form of groundwater is usually over-used.
Widespread well-drilling and pumping have increased risk of over-extraction and groundwater contamination. Meanwhile, long periods of sustained rainfall flood aquifers and cause water tables to rise above normal levels.
In 2011, the report points out, high arsenic and mercury content was detected in almost all drinking water samples collected from dry zone areas hit by Chronic Kidney Disease of Unknown Etiology (CKDu). “These areas overlap with the distribution pattern of high ground ‘water hardness’ in this country,” it states. “Calcium is prevalent in ‘hard water’, which is a feature of our dry zone areas. Arsenic forms strong bonds with calcium and is difficult to elicit in ‘hard water’.”
Subsidies have been introduced for shallow wells in some areas and “groundwater exploitation is being actively promoted by some State, provincial as well as non-governmental organisations, often without adequate knowledge of the availability of the resource,” the report continues. “Policymakers, aid agencies and NGOs must realise that unregulated and unmanaged groundwater development can have serious consequences.”
Many of these situations could be controlled and minimised if effective groundwater monitoring and management systems were in place comprises regular collection, analysis and storage of data. It will enable accurate and well-informed decision-making to manage water, the report adds.
It is anticipated that a monitoring system, particularly when it expands to the rest of the country, will enable improved water supply for public, commercial and industrial use; in irrigation, provide information of water levels and tables in specific areas for current and future development; in agriculture, identify and obtain new, sustainable sources of water or better yields while avoiding contaminated or unsuitable water sources that may save crops from disease; and, in healthcare, prevent water-borne diseases caused by contamination of groundwater resources due to excessive use of fertiliser, pesticide, weedicide and improperly planned waste dumping sites as well as during flood and drought.
The report states that natural disaster such as droughts, landslides, earth slips and many other natural disasters can be predicted by monitoring groundwater behaviour. In the area of environmental protection, a monitoring system could help conserve the environment by preventing pollution such as fertiliser overuse or leeching of industrial chemicals.
The project committee has emphasised the importance of widening project area to the whole country and said the transfer of technology is a vital feature of the proposed pilot initiative. “After the completion of the pilot project, the committee is of the opinion that the Water Resources Board shall have all the expected skills and expertise in expanding the monitoring network to cover the whole country with limited involvement of the proponent [Eijekelkamp],” it asserts. Four local subcontractors have been nominated for the project. There will be a team of four hydrogeologists–one expatriate and three local. At the stage of expanding the project, it is expected that Eijekelkamp will only be involved in equipment supply and a short-term consultancy.