International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, Volume 7, Issue 2, February 2016 ISSN 2229-5518 IJSER © 201 http://www.ijser.org Water Conflict Resolution in Multiple User Scenarios in Mahakanadarawa Scheme in Sri Lanka Hamseen, M.H.M., 1 and Sivakumar, S.S., 2 Abstract—Sri Lanka is an agriculture based developing country and currently Anuradhapura district provides the large contribution to the national economy through food production. The Mahakanadarawa irrigation scheme situated in east side of the A9 road, nearly 20km from the heart of the Anuradhapura city. This scheme has 126 Sqmls catchment and 36250 Ac ft. capacity. This scheme is the back born of the livelihood of around 5237 farmer families. The main income of these people is agriculture. Most of the farmers usually do paddy cultivation. Out of 6100 Acres the full extent cultivated in maha season and nearly 1500 acres cultivated in yala season. The cultivation of yala season reduces due to water shortage. The inflow of Mahakandarawa based on seasonal rain and inflow from Eruwewa .The Eruwewa Mahakandarawa feeder canal is not properly working due to poor maintenance and partially completed construction. This leads miss calculation on the estimation of the inflow from the Eruwewa clearly. The government and scholars identified some kidney disease spread areas far downstream of Mahakanadarawa scheme. Rambewa, Medawachchiya, Kebithigollawa etc. The major reason for this problem identified as the drinking water quality. The ground water of this area is highly polluted with the heavy material. Therefore the importance of the treated surface water become necessary. The government also announced to give the first priority to Drinking water. There is water shortage in Yala season in every year. The demand of drinking water makes another dimension to water sharing between the multiple users and emerging as bigger social problem. To address this problem a study incorporating, the agriculture pattern, and water balance of irrigation scheme and attitudes of people towards water management and reduce of the water wastage in this scheme is going on. This article spells out the importance, initial groundwork, the methodology of this curtail needy research study on socio engineering intervention of a social problem. Index Terms— Anuradhapura, National economy, Mahakanadarawa irrigation scheme, Drinking water, Paddy cultivation, Socio engineering, Multiple user. ——————————  —————————— 1 INTRODUCTION NLIKE others, "... Resolution of conflicting goals is a unique human function, imperfect and irrational as it may be. No optimization method - indeed, no model - can tell any decision-maker how to evaluate the degree to which various individual (or common group) desires should be fulfilled or compromised." Jon Liebman (1976) Throughout most of the industrialized world, water reservoir systems are largely developed; relatively little new reservoir development can be expected. The climatic change, increase of population and changing of life pattern increase the water demand in several sectors. Anuradhapura is one of the ancient city in Sri Lanka as well as famous for the ancient irrigation system. There is 12 major tanks in Anuradhapura, only 4 major tanks are utilized for the drinking water. Those are Kalawewa, Thissawewa, Nu- warawewa and Thuruwila. The new project planned in Maha- kanadarawa (Fig 1), Wahalkada, Mahawilachchiya and Hu- ruluwewa. The problems in these major schemes are  The average crop intensity is 1.2  Water shortage in yala season  High water requirement for the crops  Poor water management due to canal system  Medwachchiya, Padaviya and Wilachchiya region are identified as Kidney Disease region The government planned to build water treatment plant in Mahakanadarawa to give drinking water to Rambewa, Med- awachchiya regions. As a result, people are facing problem in seasonal cultivation and drinking water. U ————————————————  1 Irrigation Engineer, Central Irrigation Department, Anurathapura, Sri Lanka, PH (+94) 777447274 ; email:ksnavan@yahoo.com  2 Head of Department and Senior Lecturer, Department of Civil Engineer- ing, Faculty of Engineering, University of Jaffna, Kilinochchi, Sri Lanka,PH (+94) 772508730; email: sssivakumar@jfn.ac.lk 130 IJSER