Disaster Recovery Planning in Irrigation Sector- Standard Operating Procedures

This document recommends procedures for the disaster recovery of irrigation infrastructure, taking policy and institutional context and practices in Sri Lanka into account. It describes processes and activities necessary to complete recovery tasks in accordance with national requirements while aligning with international disaster recovery guidelines.

Irrigation sector institutions are required to plan for recovery after (a) a nationally declared disaster event or (b) annual floods. This document proposes procedures for engaging in disaster recovery planning for each of these scenarios, taking into consideration their differences.

The irrigation sector in Sri Lanka is keen to pursue disaster recovery planning to strengthen its capacity for planning for sustainable development. The Disaster Management Centre (DMC) Sri Lanka, with the facilitation of the ADB-UNDP project on Building Disaster-Resilient Infrastructure through Enhanced Knowledge, worked with the key irrigation sector institutions such as the Irrigation Department (ID), Mahaweli Authority of Sri Lanka (MASL), Department of Agrarian Development (DA), and the nine Provincial Irrigation Departments (PIDs) and recommended including disaster considerations into strengthening irrigation sector planning1 . Post-Crisis Assessments and Recovery Planning methodologies such as Post Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) and Disaster Recovery Framework (DRF) were introduced, and the tripartite agreement of September 25, 2008, by the European Commission, the United Nations Development Group, and the World Bank guided this work.