http://drw.jfn.ac.lk/handle/123456789/20 2026-05-12T16:18:47Z http://drw.jfn.ac.lk/handle/123456789/413 Newspaper coverage of water security issues in the water-stressed Northern Province of Sri Lanka: An explorative study of three Tamil dailies Rubini, S.; Kumarendran, B.; Raguram, S.; Sriskandarajah, N. Newspapers remain as an effective medium for circulating information among the public in the North of Sri Lanka and have the potential to influence public opinion and people’s behavior regarding sustainable use of groundwater. This study investigated the extent and scope of newspaper coverage on the subject of water security in the Northern Province of Sri Lanka. Three newspapers, namely, Yarl Thinakkural, Uthayan, and Valampuri were chosen on the basis of readership, circulation in print form, and for being daily local or regional papers in Tamil. The content analysis of 1214 articles published in 2019 and 2020 in the three papers indicated that asmuchas80%of space in the papers was allocated to reporting general news items and events in the community related to new water projects, rain and floods or drought events and announcements of allocation of irrigation water for farming. Only 20% of newspaper space was taken up by non-news articles including advertisements related to water. We conclude by saying that the effect of these newspapers on their audiences would merely be to inform rather than to set agendas or frame the discourse in society, let alone persuade readers enough to make changes. The study revealed the significant potential that exists for newspapers to shift their culture of simply reporting of facts in a dispassionate way to one of environmental journalism with a degree of advocacy in view of the critical nature of the security of groundwater in the Northern Province. 2023-06-22T00:00:00Z http://drw.jfn.ac.lk/handle/123456789/412 Water quality in Northern Province of Sri Lanka: A bibliometric analysis of publications 1960–2021 Rubini, S.; Chandrasekar, K.; Janen, T.; Sriskandarajah, N. Groundwater contamination derived from human activities including farming is a serious problem threatening water security in the Northern Province (NP) of Sri Lanka. Gathering all existing research knowledge on the province’s water resource base to create a digital repository is a key action in the 3-year action research project on water security. Papers gathered in the repository showed that water quality, particularly salinity in groundwater and its contamination was a prominent theme in research over the past two decades. Thus, the scope of this bibliometric study is restricted to published work on water quality pertaining to the North during 1969–2021. Publications listed in four electronic databases, namely, Scopus, PubMed, Web of Science, and Google Scholar yielded 118 scholarly publications. This paper provides an overview of the publication types and distribution, titles of journals and conferences, authorship, institutions, countries, themes, and keywords used. Final 20 years of study period saw a substantial growth in publication rate of water quality papers in the NP with journal articles and conference papers being the dominant types at 63% and 35%, respectively. Authors from 52 different institutions contributed to production of these publications, 93% of whom represented public sector institutions in Sri Lanka. University of Jaffna was in the lead position in numeric terms (n = 82), followed by the University of Peradeniya (n = 28). A significant 81% of the papers accounted for studies on water contamination, some indication of the degree of concern for this aspect among the research community. Around 65% of papers have been published in a wide range of international journals, some of which are less well established. This tendency has implications for the scientific output in terms of its quality, peer review process, and in turn also for usefulness of the work in the local context and in policy making. 2023-03-27T00:00:00Z http://drw.jfn.ac.lk/handle/123456789/411 Groundwater mapping and locally engaged water governance in a small island terrain: Case study of Karainagar island, Northern Sri Lanka Karthiga, I.; Rameshwaran, P.; Ketheesan, B.; Sriskandarajah, N. Groundwater is a vital resource under threat in island communities. Karainagar, a 22km2 island, is one of seven islands off the coast of Jaffna in Northern Sri Lanka, with its population of just about 11,000 persons, experiences seasonal water shortage, and salinity in groundwater as twin threats impacting on their lives. This paper reports on a 3-year study (October2019toSeptember2022) to map groundwater dynamics of Karainagar island spatially and seasonally and discusses the patterns revealed in terms of community needs, policy implications, and governance ideas that could already be considered by relevant authorities and citizens jointly. Thirty-six dug wells used for drinking, domestic, agricultural, and public purposes were selected, and water level, salinity, and pH changes recorded along with daily rainfall. This paper offers a thorough description of the geography, land use, distribution of wells, and water bodies, followed by discussion of the current status of the groundwater in Karainagar island. Year-to-year differences in rainfall pattern resulted in different rates of change and range in water level with a corresponding reverse pattern seen in salinity with some exceptions across the island. Cumulative rainfall required to reach full capacity of wells ranged from 652 to 892 mm over the 3 years with an average figure of 739 mm of rain. This implies that any further rainfall during early phase of the main rainy season is potential surface water for storage and runoff. Practices such as unregulated pumping and construction of tube wells are argued to be contributing to increase in salinity levels with health implications for residents. A participatory governance approach that overcomes limitations of the existing institutional approach is proposed. Its success based on broad stake holder engagement, improved equity, and transparency when supported by adequate policies and village level aquifer monitoring will enable sustainability of ground water resources in Karainagar. 2015-05-15T00:00:00Z http://drw.jfn.ac.lk/handle/123456789/320 Requlating non point source pollution from agriculture. Sooriyakumar, K. set of policy options to regulate non point source pollution from agriculture in Jaffna district. Studies are oriented towards comparing the effects of input oriented measures (Fertilizer tax) and policy measures directed towards more direct changes in the agronomic practices on the farm. The trade-offs between and regulation costs are discussed. Ground water, the most vital but vulnerable resource in Jaffna, has got polluted with several well-known pollutants resulting in depletion of quantity of potable water as well as deterioration in quality. Nitrates and Phosphates quality of ground water had been monitored at critical locations (such as Thirunelvely, Kondavil, Vadarnaradchy and Jaffna city wells) for several years. Alarming increases in concentration of nitrates, (above 66ppm) well beyond limits of tolerance according to WHO standards (permissible-50ppm) have been recorded in the early eighties. The concentration of nitrates (mg/liter) in well water from several villages in Jaffna district has been recorded. It shows that water from araly, chavakacheri, Delft, Jaffna-Hospital, Kaithady, Karaveddy, Kayts, Kondavil, Thirunelvely, Vaddukoddai, Valvettiturai has above the tolerable concentration of nitrates (50mg/litre) and water from Manthuvil, Tellippalai has below the tolerable concentration of nitrates. This has been attributed to leachate from agrochemicals percolating down to ground water table. This is a non point source pollution.In the case of non point source pollution, monitoring costs make taxes on emissions prohibitively expensive. Because of this, input taxes, such as a tax on N in mineral fertilizers, are an interesting alternative but effect of such taxes is heavily disputed. Still, there are several arguments in favour of such a solution that could be tested with the help of a properly developed inter disciplinary analytical system.An N tax should lead to reduced fertilization levels, and thus should indirectly reduce N leaching. Second, the changes in relative prices brought about by fertilizer tax may lead to the substitution of mineral fertilizer by manure, reducing the potential losses from this source. In general a tax should make agronomic practices that facilitate higher plant uptake, and thus lower losses, more profitable. It may make it more interesting for the farmer to adopt split fertilization ( to adjust fertilization levels to stochastic changes in the plant growth potential). Since higher losses of N tend to occur in years with low plant growth, split fertilization may reduce nutrient losses.Another example is catch crops. Most losses of nitrates take place outside the growing season of the main crop. Catch crops may guard against losses (1) through increased total plant uptake of N and (2) through increased microbial immobilization of mineral N prone to leaching in the period after the catch crop is incorporated into the soil. This N will become available for plant growth in later years through mineralization process. An N tax will increase the value of this N pool, and thus may motivate the use of catch crops.Due to the character of the problem, Policy analyses in the field of environmental problems will generally involve aspects covered by several disciplines. Fertilizer inputs, crop growth and various soil processes affect leaching individually and jointly. Thus not only do the levels of input influence leaching but also the incorporation of organic matter in the soil, the length of the growing season, tillage practices, pesticide use etc. through their effects on crop growth and dynamics of the soil N pools.No simple solution exists for reducing non point source pollution from agriculture. N tax, which in principle could capture the effects of all the variations, are mostly of theoretical interest. If variability is of greater significance, measures directed towards changes in agronomic practices may be preferable since this type of instrument can be differentiated even down to the farm level. An input tax can, on the other hand, hardly be distinguished within the same market. A major problem with an N tax is its fairly large distribution effects. It should also be noted that it is difficult to vary input taxes between regions, as this would result in trade leakages between regions. A system with tradable N quotas may be of interest. If initial quotas are issued free to farmers, at least farmers as a group would not be worse off. Another option might be a standard lump sum transfer or a subsidy on catch cropping through money raised by the tax. However, the gains of increased precision have to be compared to the increased level of administrative costs. 2003-01-01T00:00:00Z