Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2017-10-24

Rehabilitation of minor reservoirs

- According to a survey conducted in the years 2015/2016, 10,497 minor reservoirs have been identified as being in a condition that requires rehabilitation. The expeditious initiation of the said rehabilitation is hindered by the dearth of technical staff in the Department of Agrarian Development. In order to address this, the proposal made by Hon. Duminda Dissanayake, the Minister of Agriculture, to assign the preparation of engineering estimates, the supervision of construction sites and suchlike technical services necessary for the identified expeditious rehabilitation work that would incur a cost of more than Rs. 5 million, to external institutions with requisite skills, qualifications and experience following the national procurement guidelines, was approved by the Cabinet.