The Harsh Facts of Hydraulics: Technology and Society in Sri Lanka's Colonization Schemes

Abstract

From the close of the First World War to the present, the government of Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon) has attempted a series of ambitious irrigation and resettlement projects, called in the literature.' These projects seek to settle landless Sri Lankan peasants in Sri Lanka's sparsely populated Dry Zone, where ancient Buddhist civilizations once flourished in valleys watered by rivers flowing from the central mountain massif.2 (See fig. 1.) The colonization schemes have several goals, including achieving selfsufficiency in rice production and preserving the traditional peasantry by insulating it from the evils of a society deformed by colonialism. Although such schemes have substantially increased Sri Lanka's rice output, they have almost uniformly failed to achieve their social goals.3 Indeed, they seem inclined to reproduce (rather than