Press Release

JICA's new technical cooperation assistance, named as "Project for Capacity Building for Field Officers of Community Participation in Community Water Supply Schemes Management" was officially launched on 06th of October at the State Ministry of Provincial Councils and Local Government with the participation of Mr. S.D.A.B. Boralessa, the Secretary of the Ministry and Mr. Yamada Tetsuya, Chief Representative of JICA Sri Lanka Office.

This project will be implemented for three years starting from October 2021 with the State Ministry of Provincial Councils and Local Government and Department of Local Governments of the North, East, North Central and Uva provinces, attaching to the on-going project under Japan's Loan named "Rural Infrastructure Development Project (RIDEP)". The RIDEP specifically has focused on rehabilitate and improve small scale rural infrastructures which includes rural roads, small and medium irrigation schemes and rural water supply units with the purpose of improvement of living standards and livelihood of local people.

The water supply units which are developed through RIDEP will be handed-over to the departments of local governments and its grass-root level arm namely "Pradesiya Sabha" who will be the responsible organization of operation and maintenance of those water supply units in the future through their field officers and maintenance staff.

It was identified that the new project needed to be implemented to support the RIDEP in order to ensure the sustainable functioning of rural water supply units. Therefore, this technical cooperation "Project for Capacity Building for Field Officers of Community Participation in Community Water Supply Schemes Management" has been formulated to focus on capacity development of the field officers and maintenance staff to provide skills and knowledge on day-to-day operation and maintenance of rural water supply units. The project includes relevant training programs with modules, develop necessary monitoring plans and provincial level database on the rural water supply schemes.

Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is an incorporated administrative agency in charge of administering Japan's Official Development Assistance (ODA), is one of the world's largest bilateral aid agencies supporting socioeconomic development in developing countries in different regions of the world. Under its new vision of "Leading the world with trust" set out in July 2017, JICA supports the resolution of issues in developing countries through a flexible combination of various types of assistance methods. In Sri Lanka, Japan has been providing financial and technical assistance since 1954 and is one of the largest donors to the country. On behalf of the people of Japan, JICA contributes to improve the lives of people in Sri Lanka.