Tsunami impacts on shallow groundwater and associated water supply on the East coast of Sri Lanka

A post-tsunami well recovery support initiative and an assessment of groundwater salinity in three areas of Batticaloa and Ampara Districts:

The present document is the report of a project that was conceived as a first phase of a larger effort to support an integrated plan for water supply and use of water resources in affected areas of the tsunami in Sri Lanka as well as their joined hinterlands. It was meant to support and guide the immediate efforts associated with the rehabilitation of tsunami-affected wells and to initiate a monitoring program, with emphasis on salinity, on the east coast in order to assess the short to intermediate impacts of the tsunami on the water supply from existing shallow groundwater wells in the area.

The introductory chapter is followed by Chapter 2 describing the potential impacts of the tsunami on groundwater, issues related to cleaning of wells in affected areas and a description of the geographical, demographic, and water use setting on the east coast as well as some key figures for the overall devastation caused in these areas. Chapter 3 describes the objectives of the present study, project implementation and the research methodology. The results of the well rehabilitation support and the monitoring program are given in Chapter 4 and finally, Chapter 5 synthesizes the findings and extracts the conclusions and recommendations for further work.