Abstract:
Sri Lanka being an agricultural country from time
immemorial definitely possessed various methodological
and technological systems to promote, nourish,
protect and safeguard their cultivations. At the outset
it is necessary to analyse the climatic and environmental
factors that prevailed in the island of Sri Lanka.
This island is situated in the Monsoon region which
provides seasonal rains during certain months of the
year. The rest of the year, at times brings drought ,vhich
dries up almost all the water sources in certain areas
of the island. In ancient Sri Lanka the early agricultural
settlers (Harris, D.R. 1969) preferred to set up
their settlements in the dry zone, because these areas
provided flat lands (Siri,veera I , 1990) and less forests.
Ho,vever the main probiem they had to face in this
area was the non-availability of sufficient ,vater for their
cultivation. (Brohier, R.L. 1989) Since there are no
rivers in Sri Lanka which provide a perennial ,vater
supply for the entire year, farmers had to depend on
reservoirs built for s toring ,vater for agricultural needs.
Hence a system of irrigation had to be devised in order
to carry out the agricultural activities (Chang T.T.
1989).
