Sri Lanka has about 120,000 engineered rural waterway crossings (such as bridges) and another 250,000 non-engineered crossings built and maintained by communities. Because of a lack of financial and human resources, local authorities are unable to maintain them. Marginalised rural communities are concerned that they are unsafe and restrict their access to markets and government services.

Research undertaken for the International Forum for Rural Transport and Development assessed the state of waterway crossings and evaluated community safety concerns.

Non-engineered crossings have been constructed to shorten the walking distances to essential services and other villages. About 80 percent of the crossings examined have alternative and safer access routes but the distances involved can be up to 12 times greater. Most are made of railings, concrete slabs or coconut logs positioned across channels. Almost all the non-engineered crossings are structurally unsound, lack abutments and are subject to constant erosion. Most become unusable after floods.

Three-quarters of the crossings are less than a metre in width. They are dangerous to cross by motorcycle or bicycle. Because the crossings are narrow, and generally have no handrails – or simply an unstable bamboo rail on one side – rural communities cannot use them to transport loads and goods. This is particularly frustrating for the significant number of villagers who have no other access to a main road.

Many crossings have been built by individual households, but then come into public use. In general no one takes responsibility for them, except in a few cases where small village groups have voluntarily claimed ownership. In some cases the local authorities – Pradeshiya Sabas (PSs) – have provided construction materials for free but none have offered any sort of engineering advice or supervision. According to interviewees, PSs say it is not their responsibility to maintain them and do not act when villagers make written or verbal complaints.

Key issues which emerged in interviews and focus group discussions included:

• worries about young children not being able to take advantage of education opportunities due to the risks associated with using crossings to reach nearby schools
• fears for the safety of the elderly: old people are afraid of using them and there have been cases of elderly patients dying as a result of having to take longer routes to hospital
• frustration that women are unable to use the crossings at night, due to lack of lighting: families fear their daughters will be attacked
• anger directed at PSs for their lack of interest in maintaining and improving waterway crossings.

The author recommends that:

• each PS be required to maintain an inventory of crossings
• PSs should provide engineering planning guidelines and supervise construction
• PSs should use participatory approaches in planning, construction and maintenance and establish permanent committees of four to five village members for ongoing liaison on safety issues
• national transport planners should start paying attention to rural waterway crossings, recognise their vital economic role and ensure that they are included in the National Transport Policy, which is now under preparation.

Source(s):
‘Study on Safety Issues: Rural Waterway Crossings of Sri Lanka’, International Forum for Rural Transport and Development Case Study, by Granie R. Jayalath Full document.
‘Time to Broaden the Transport Safety Debate. Study on various elements of rural transport safety. A synthesis of pilot case studies from Sri Lanka, India, Madagascar, Cameroon and Peru.’ IFRTD: London, by Didier Young, Granie R Jayalath, Ashoke Sarkar, Maria Gutierrez and Vivien Meli, 2007 Full document.

id21 Research Highlight: 17 October 2007

Further Information:
Granie R. Jayalath

Tel: +94 (0)1122873807; +94 773536596
Fax: +94 (0)112871150
Contact the contributor: granierj@eol.lk

International Forum for Rural Transport and Development

International Forum for Rural Transport and Development
113 Spitfire Studios
63-71 Collier Street
London N1 9BE
UK

Tel: +44 (0)20 77136699
Fax: +44 (0)20 77138290
Contact the contributor: ifrtd@ifrtd.org

Other related links:
'Forgotten waterways – time to recognise the potential of water transport'

'Can improved transport increase safety and security risks?'

'Transport, the missing link? A catalyst for achieving the MDGs'