The “Poverty Reduction Strategy” of the Government of Sri Lanka emphasizes the need to develop and conserve water resources and, sustain and improve the water usage by increasing the water productivity, particularly in the context of increasing competition between domestic use, irrigation, industry, ecosystem and other urban uses.

Historically, Sri Lanka has been one of the leading countries promoting the concept of Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM). This is evident from the ancient hydraulic civilization and the present high level commitment at national level to the adoption of the IWRM strategy such as Accelerated Mahaweli Development Program. However, over the years, the fragmented and top to bottom approaches have been created various problems, conflicts and uncertainties in the water sector. The urgency today, for Sri Lanka, is to disseminate and implement this management strategy to all professionals involved in water sector. To adopt and implement the policy and strategy for IWRM, the capacity, skills and attitudes of the agencies involved in irrigation and water resources management will have to be further improved.
 

Cap-Net Lanka was launched  at a meeting between the Country Water Partnership and the Postgraduate Institute of Agriculture(PGIA), University of Peradeniya on 4th October 2003 at the PGIA.

The broad objective of Cap-Net Lanka is to extend the IWRM training activities to a wider section of the community through various training programmes.

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