Beneficiary Participation in Formulating Social Safeguard Management Programmes – Experience from Dam Safety and Water Resources Planning Project of Sri Lanka

The Social Safeguard Management Programme (SSMP) has become a key component of irrigation related rehabilitation projects. This paper reviews a renewed approach to developing SSMP that has been adopted in the rehabilitation of four reservoirs coming under the DSWRPP, where water releases had to be suspended temporarily to enable the rehabilitation. The SSMP has been designed in such a way that livelihood support assistance is provided to 8,344 affected families in the downstream communities. The conduct of Social Impact Assessment and the development of Livelihood Support Assistance (LSA) plans are illustrated. The LSA plan has four sub plans namely Wage Assistance Plan, Alternative Crops Plan, Domestic Water Use Plan and Gender Action Plan. The affected people have contributed to the economy by working in the rehabilitation work and saving foreign exchange by cultivating alternative crops. The paper presents ample evidence of the level of contentment and happiness of the farmers at the end of the programme, they being made responsible for the development and implementation of the LSA plans. The main argument offered in this article is that the programmes to assess and mitigate socio-economic impacts should primarily take into account the perspectives of the people without exclusively relying on specialists or technocrats.

ENGINEER, Vol. 48, No.02, pp. 15-23 2015