Flood warning system in Nilwala Ganga in Sri Lanka

The lower basin of Nilwala Ganga in southern part of Sri Lanka located in the paddy cultivation and inundating transportation road network for long periods. Later assistance of the French Government was obtained in solving the problem. A loan agreement was signed with the French Government to regulate Nilwala Ganga. As a part of this agreement, the design and construction works of the flood protection scheme was awarded to a French Group of contractors on ''turn-key'' basis. Subsequently (during the construction stage) it was realised that due to construction of flood bunds there will be a negative effect on the This area is about 56%: of the protected area and therefore sane solution had to be find out to minimise the negative effect. As a solution to above problem an automatic flood wanting system was introduced by a special French contractor under a sub-contract to the main group of contractors. This contract was also awarded on ''turn-key'' basis. Cost involved in the Flood Warning System was about Rs.22 million in the year 1990. Later it was found that this flood warning system was a failure and the money spent was a complete wastage. This is a good example of adopting high technology without proper investigations on the actual local requirements. Both the viability ard the sustainability of the solution was not studied accurately in the context of the local requirements.