Three articles, published in 14 April, 2002 Sunday Island Paper (of Sri Lanka) regarding

Water problem in Jaffna.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Features
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A River for Jaffna

by S. Arumugam
Jaffna with a scanty rainfall which can sometimes be only 30" is different from the other
parts of the northern province which enjoy a rainfall of over 60" during the year.

To convey the beneficial aspects of the abundant rainfall from one part of the province to
another, which is bereft of such bounty, is a legitimate aspiration for agricultural
development.

The late K. Balasingham, Member of the Legislative Council, visualized early in the
1930 decade, the utilization of the lagoons by their conversion into fresh water lakes. His
criterion was the oft-repeated saying of Parakrama Bahu the Great that "not a drop of rain
should be allowed to flow into the ocean without profiting man".

These led to the consideration of the full utilization of the flood waters of Kanagarayan
aru, the main river in the northern province. The aru has its source in Vavuniya and
passes through Puliyankulam Mankulam area to fill Iranamadu tank.

The surplus flow enters the Elephant Pass lagoon, i.e., the lagoon to the east of Elephant
Pass bridge, and goes to waste in the open sea, through the large bridge at Elephant Pass.

One day in the month of February 1949, a family travelling on the road had stopped on
the road near the Elephant Pass bridge, for their picnic lunch. When washing their hands

1
in the water the fond father was heard explaining to his little sons inquiries the reason for
the presence of fresh water on the east side of the road in spite of the west side being
open sea.

The little boys impetuous response was "Let us bring some earth in our car and fill up
the bridge, then there will be fresh water always!".

That year the Kanagarayan aru had a copious flow; the Iranamadu irrigation tank had
filled and been spilling. The surplus flow had filled the lagoon to the east of the road, and
though the Iranamadu tank had stopped spilling in January, the water in the east lagoon
was still fresh even in February. But it would soon become brackish due to sea water
entry through the bridge unless some earth was brought and filling done.

Perennially fresh

That the water in the eastern side of the road should remain fresh throughout the year,
forms the basis of the Elephant Pass Fresh Water Reservoir project on which work is in
progress.

The Elephant Pass lagoon receives the waters of the Kanagarayan aru, Nethsali aru,
Perementhal aru, Theravil aru, and other streams, and covers an area of about 11,400
acres stretching from Elephant Pass to Chundikulam.

It is bounded by Vanaekulam to the north and by the Karachchi lands to the south. With
the erection of an obstruction near the bridge and suitable embankment spill near
Chundikulam, the fresh water that enters the lagoon will form the Elephant Pass Fresh
Water Reservoir. A link channel to the north through Mullian area connects this reservoir
to the internal lagoon within the Jaffna peninsula usually known as the Vadamarachchi
lagoon.

The Vadamarachchi lagoon is a long sheet of water connecting from Mulliyan in

Pachchilaipalai, spreading through Chempiyanpattu, Eluthumadduval, Varani, Karaveddi,
Vallai Veli, and connects with the sea near Thondamannar near Valvettithurai in
Vadamarachchi. It also branches off at Sarasalai, and extends towards Jaffna town
connecting up with the sea at Arialai near Chemmani.

It is about a mile wide, and as it extends more or less right through the heart of the
peninsula, it is an ideal store house influences life in the peninsula. As a result of the 600
foot barrage recently completed at Thondamannar, entry of sea water has been cut off and
is prevented from entering this internal lake, which was originally the Thondaiman Aar.

Three items

The nature of work envisaged to be done at Elephant Pass consists of three items:

2
A dam by the side of Elephant Pass bridge would conserve and save the flood waters of
Kanagarayan aru, and also would in addition prevent any entry of sea water from the
open sea in the west.

A one and a quarter mile roadway dam and spill built across the lagoon at its eastern end
at Chundikulam would ensure the safe discharge of surplus flood waters and will also in
addition prevent salt water ingress from the eastern ocean.

While these eastern and western structures would help to receive and store in safety, the
fresh water flood flow, the third item, viz., a link canal will convey the water thus stored
to the heart of the Jaffna peninsula.

On completion of these works, the Kanagarayan aru flood waters would first be utilized
in leaching out the brackishness present in the Elephant Pass (primary or parent)
reservoir, and in the Vadamarachchi (secondary or service) reservoir, simultaneously.

The primary reservoir with its clayey bed will respond much quicker than the secondary
with its alluvial bed, to these leaching out measures. Though the process of leaching
cannot obviously be concluded for some time, yet there would hardly be any delay in
reaping the beneficial aspects.

The benefits will commence immediately, and improve more and more with each rain
season. Moreover, it is well known that partially brackish water, though not fresh to the
palate, is nevertheless useful for cultivation needs, as is the case with the water found in
many wells in the coastal regions of the peninsula.

Inland lake

As days go by the heat of the sun during the months of February, March, April etc., will
cause considerable evaporation in the reservoirs. Each day the amount of water lost in the
secondary will be supplied to it by the primary through the canal, and the secondary will
therefore continue to be full, (being supplemented every day), as long as flow from
Elephant Pass reservoir is possible.

Such conditions could go on till the southwest monsoon in June, July cause enormous
evaporation which it may not be possible to supplement.

In effect this will result in having an inland lake in the Jaffna peninsula. The benefits that
will accrue to the lands in the Jaffna peninsula as a result of having a vast fresh water
lake will be many-fold.

It would tend to make the underground water table copious and raise its level; the level of
water in the wells would be higher as years go by. Moisture will be prevalent in the sub-
soil. Plant life will become luxurious; gone will be the days when trees and coconut
palms get scorched and drop in the hot season.

3
That this work will benefit the agricultural development of the neighbouring area of over
15,000 acres is beyond doubt. It will also cause the flow of Kanagarayan aru waters from
its source in Vavuniya district through the Jaffna district and over the spillway at
Thondamannar and at Ariyalai in the outskirts of Jaffna town.

(The writer is a former Deputy Director of Irrigation. This article was first published in
October 1954.)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Features
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Water in Jaffna
by D. L. O. Mendis
(Technical Adviser to the Minister of Irrigation and Water Management)
Jaffna is famous for its mangoes, bananas, grapes, and other delicious fruits, to say
nothing of its vegetables and other agricultural products, all dependent on groundwater
and conservation of rain water. The Jaffna market gardens were compared by Sir James
Emerson Tenant to the market gardens of Fulham and Chelsea in the mid 19th century.
In an earlier day and age we southerners looked forward to any opportunity to visit our
friends in the peninsula and enjoy their generous hospitality. Public servants had special
opportunities to do this, as I personally recall from my Irrigation department and
Planning Ministry salad days.

Now, the Minister of Irrigation and Water Management, Honourable Gamini

Jayewickrema Perera, is visiting the peninsula to lead the rehabilitation, restoration, and
possible augmentation of the groundwater systems. Three articles by eminent engineers
describe aspects of the problem and possible solutions. A River for Jaffna was first
published in 1954, by a former Deputy Director of Irrigation S. Arumugam who passed
away in London in 2000 at the age of 95 years. The Water Problem in Jaffna is by another
but younger retired Deputy Director of Irrigation, M. Rathinam, who has spent some ten
years studying the problem of groundwater, especially pollution, in Jaffna. The third
article by V. Tharumaratnam describes a comparatively new technology called directional
drilling that had originated in the oil industry and is now used in water supply. It has been
used in many projects in the south, and hopefully, it will be introduced to Jaffna in the
near future.

4
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Features
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Water problem in Jaffna

M. Rathinam
Jaffna peninsular lies in the northern most part of Sri Lanka. It was connected to the
mainland on the east coast at Chundikulam by a slender sandy strip. This strip failed in
1958 and the peninsula became an island. In 1961 an earthern embankment was laid
across the Jaffna lagoon at Elephant Pass sufficient enough to carry a railroad and a
highway. This now functions as the connection to the mainland and the island became a
peninsula again.

The peninsula is dependant on its groundwater for all its requirements. There are no
rivers or reservoirs of a perennial nature. Some area is now found to be in unsuitable
waters and these waters appear to be increasing year by year.

The peninsula is narrow and elongated. It is of low elevation. It is 1000 sq. kms. (400 sq.
miles) in area, and has a coast line of 160 kms. (100 miles). The peninsula area was lying
in a shallow sea during the miocene period when it collected a layer of limestone.
Subsequently due to earth movements the western sector rose above sea level. The
eastern sector continued to lie about a metre or so below sea level. It acquired a layer of
sand through currents in the sea and has since risen above sea level. The western sector is
of lime stone and the eastern sector has a sand cover.

The peninsula has a wet stream in the western sector called Valukai aru. The eastern
sector has an internal lagoon called Vadamarachchi. This originally must have been a
location of trapped sea water. A mass of rock salt existed at Karanavai village and an
Indian king cut open a water way across a minor limestone ridge on the north coast and
connected it to Vadamarachchi making it a lagoon. He wanted to bring his boats to
transport the rock salt. The new waterway is called Thondaman aru (River of
Thondaman). The area is now called Thondamannar (Thondaman Aar) a corruption of
Thondamanaru. An internal lagoon called Upparu is the separator of the eastern sector
from the western sector.

A minor ridge in limestone runs west from Point Pedro to Keerimalai very close to the
northern shore. It then takes a southwesterly course and drops in level to merge with the
natural ground at Chankanai. It is through this that the Thondaman aru was cut. The mean
levels of the ridge are 15 metres (50 ft.) at Puloly (Point Pedro), 10 metres (35 ft.) at
Myliddi, 9 metres (30 ft.) at Keerimalai and 3 metres (10 ft.) Chankanai. From this ridge
another spur takes off at Myliddi to run south to Kokuvil. It drops in level fast after
Kokuvil to merge with the natural ground in a short distance. The level at Kokuvil is 6
metres (20 ft.).

A series of sand dunes run from..... to Iyakachchi through Kodikamam forming a ridge.
This ridge reaches a maximum height of 9 metres (30 ft.) occasionally. A spur sand dune

5
ridge takes over from Kodikamam to Karaveddy. Another series of sand dunes form a
ridge very close to the eastern shore from Thalaiadi and runs up to Point Pedro and joins
with the limestone ridge there. Its maximum height is 7 metres (25 ft.)

Valulai aru starts at Tellipallai west at level 6 metres (20 ft.) in calcic soil. As it goes
down towards the sea at Araly it drops in level and its bed becomes clayey. This clay
region gets wider and wider as Valukai aru goes down. Vadamarachchi and Upparu lie in
clayey beds and the clay spread is quite wide.

The soil in the western sector is from decomposed limestone; beside the drainage line its
clayey. Occasional clayey areas are also found. The eastern sector is sandy. However, a
layer of limestone exists from about a metre depth. The limestone mainly is in moist
chalky form. (Namam) In certain areas small quantities of hard limestone also exists.

Groundwater is qualified as classified as aquifer and perched waters. Aquifers have

waters constantly on the move from higher elevations to lower water bodies like seas,
lakes etc. Perched waters are non moving waters. Ground waters are recharged either
from rain or from waters of rivers or lakes which are at higher elevations. As waters pass
through the soil they wash down soluble matter. They also may react with suitable matter.
Thus water reaching the groundwater level would be partially contaminated. In the case
of aquifers the contamination will increase continuously as it goes down. As these waters
exit into major water bodies the accumulation of dirt goes with it. In the case of perched
waters dirt will continue to accumulate and the waters may reach a state which is
unsuitable for human use.

6
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Features
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well water system with Horizontally drilled infiltration galleries

V. Tharumaratnam

Groundwater
On a global scale,
3% is fresh water with the other 97% sea water
Again, of this 3% fresh water, 79% is water in the ice caps and in glaciers and 21% is
total available fresh water.
So, fresh water is under 0.06% of the total water on earth.

Role of ground water

Mc Guinness in his paper titled Role of Ground Water in the National Water Situation
says of underground formations capable of accepting and storing water as follows: "They
accept the water, they filter it to remove sediment and disease-causing bacteria, they store
it in quantities vastly exceeding those which could be held in all natural and surface-
water bodies put together, they even out its temperature and chemical quality, they
transport it from areas of replenishment to areas of need, and they slow down its natural
discharge to the surface so that it makes up the dry-weather flow of streams".

Ground water in Sri Lanka

In Sri Lanka one estimates that 8% of the long term average precipitation of 100 million
acre feet per year infiltrates into the ground as ground water. Another estimate places this
value at 17.5% or double.

Taking a rounded average of 10% this gives an annual groundwater recharge of 10

million acre feet or about 12,375,000,000 cubic meters or 12,375 MCM . This however
does not represent the total volume of water stored in the ground. This can only be
determined by estimating the aquifer volumes and properties. The total volumes will
almost certainly be many times the annual recharge and many hundred times the total
volume of man made surface storage in Sri Lanka.

In the United States and in many European countries where groundwater accounts for
most of the total water used, aquifers can be very thick often exceeding hundreds of feet
in depth. Therefore using deep draw downs does not present any problems and
conventional bore hole or tube well drilling techniques are used.

Quanats 2,500 years ago

Over 2,500 years ago the problem of thin lenses of aquifer and the need to apply shallow
draw downs (fall in water level) was solved through the construction of infiltration
galleries feeding into a central well. These galleries resulted in the effective diameter of
the well increasing to the diameter of the extremity of the gallery, without loss of land
area over it, or water storage volume under it. These galleries however were in the nature

7
of tunnels lined with stone and for collection of large volumes of water for irrigation
purposes. In Iran and Afghanistan these were known as Quanats.One extensive quanat
system built about 500 BC in Egypt is said to have irrigated about 4,700 square
kilometres of fertile land west of the Nile. This is about 7% of the land area in Sri Lanka.

With rainfalls in those desert areas much less than that in the dry zone of Sri Lanka, this
speaks volumes for the water technology of Wells with Horizontal Galleries.

Wells with horizontal galleries

Modern technology in the form of rotary drilling techniques enables small diameter
galleries to be constructed instead of large tunnel like structures built in ancient times.
This reduces costs and construction time. In the modern equivalent of the horizontal
gallery system the galleries are drilled radially like the spokes in a wheel. The volume of
water will therefore be proportional to the length of the radial galleries. This can be
several times the well radius and becomes the effective radius of the well. The well radius
required is purely to provide sufficient working space for doing the horizontal drilling.
Generally a well radius of 3 to 4 meters is sufficient. Increase in yields of over 20 times
that of wells without galleries have been achieved, but actual increase in yields that can
be achieved will depend on the soil properties and will defer from location to location.

Some advantages of a horizontally drilled infiltration gallery system are:

1. The land area above the galleries can be put to productive use unlike in large open
agro-wells or ponds where this will not be possible.

2. The system can tap even very thin lenses of water without causing disruption to the
groundwater system.

3. Loss due to evaporation is minimized.

4. In irrigation use, most of the drainage water is in fact returned to the water table.

5. Where suitable aquifers or water bearing formations are available, the system offers
the lowest construction costs - at about a third to a fourth of the cost of conventional
surface water systems.

6. Very often the water is safe to drink with minimal treatment because the earth has
acted as a filter, reducing the treatment cost of water from the system.

The system offers the only hope of water for sustainable development

Costs and benefits

Groundwater systems offer the lowest cost water systems. It stands to reason that it must
be so because:
The water is generally available at the point of use. Therefore transmission lines over
long distances will not be required. Groundwater aquifers offer a natural storage without

8
any evaporation losses saving billions of rupees required for man made surface storage.
Storage can be larger than the largest man made storage that can ever be made. There is
no loss of land due to storages, or for the denudation of forests, or the resettlement of
population, associated with surface irrigation systems. Expensive foreign expertise, or
equipment will not be required. On a broad brush basis costs will be a fifth to a third of
surface systems and will offer sustainable water systems for development..

Water for Jaffna

All water for Jaffna has to be derived from direct precipitation in the peninsular, which
makes the ground the only possible storage. However since the topography is flat and the
salt water interface only a few feet below surface, there is insufficient overburden above
the salt water interface to provide ground storage. Ground below salt water interface will
be permeated by salt water unless some distance from it. Therefore fresh water
infiltrating into the ground below the saltwater interface is likely to become saline.

Therefore the only means of storing water is by using the saltwater inter face as a
membrane and storing the fresh water above it. Salt water being denser than fresh water
will remain below. The corollary to this is that abstraction below the saltwater interface
must be avoided to prevent down coning of the fresh water body above it. The causes of
brackish water in the Jaffna peninsular are not only the up-coning of the salt water
through the rapid removal of the overlying fresh water but also the down coning of the
fresh water through the rapid removal of the water below the level of the salt water
interface.

A means of overcoming this problem is by means of wells with horizontal galleries. The
level of the galleries will limit the level below which extraction of water cannot take
place if the walls of the wells and the well bottom are sealed or if the well is not taken
down below the salt water interface-usually sea level.

If every well in Jaffna was lined and sealed or filled to ensure that it did not extend below
the salt water line and water abstracted only through horizontal galleries, this will
automatically increase the depth of the fresh water lens.

On a land area of 984 sq km and 1200 mm rainfall

Total precipitation available will be 1.176 MCM.
For 900,000 population at 100 litres per capita per day
Potable water requirement will be 32 MCM
Therefore for potable water, required precipitation is 2.8%
The precipitation is sufficient to meet the potable water needs of Jaffna. What is required
is to maximize recovery of the precipitation for other purposes.
As for storage, this may not be necessary as an increase in the fresh water lens by a mere
100 mm will increase storage by 117 MCM. The cheapest and quickest solution for water
for Jaffna is:
Terminate all existing wells at about sea level provide Horizontal Galleries above sea
level.

9
To ensure compliance, seal the well bottom in concrete. Estimated cost for filling ,
sealing and providing galleries is Rs. 20,000 per well.
Assuming 400,000 wells, Total cost Rs. 8,000,000,000
If 500 MCM of water can be recovered (50% of precipitation.) Cost per MCM Rs.
16,000,000.
This is less than half the cost of river diversion schemes. Cost for potable water will be
less than one fifth.
This proposal offers an immediate simple solution. The proposals can be undertaken in
stages over specific demarkated area, starting with some pilot projects.

10