Ensuring clean, abundant water and a healthy watershed for people, elephants, and other wildlife.
It is an honor for us to have been designated the official Mahaweli River Waterkeeper by the Waterkeeper Alliance, which works to strengthen and grow a global network of grassroots leaders protecting everyone’s right to clean water.
This is the first time in Sri Lanka that a river, or for that matter any surface water body on the island, has a designated Waterkeeper. This means we will have the added challenge of ensuring this pioneering and innovative initiative succeeds. We are using our elephant conservation as an entry point to protect the Mahaweli River watershed, an important water source for both humans and elephants.
The Mahaweli River basin is the largest basin in Sri Lanka accounting for almost one fifth of the country’s total area. The river flows into the Bay of Bengal.
Threats to the watershed include agricultural pollution, sand mining, hydropower dams, deforestation, poorly planned land use, and water shortage. These have collectively resulted in the degradation of watershed conditions, a decline in water quality, a loss of wildlife habitat and populations, and an escalation in human-elephant conflicts.
The increasing negative impacts from unsustainable water resource use by rural communities are taking a toll on wildlife—especially the elephants in the Wasgamuwa region in the Central Province of Sri Lanka.
In Sri Lanka, the dry season intensifies a life-threatening struggle for a basic necessity: water. An adult elephant requires 100–300 litres of water daily. As natural sources dry up, elephants are increasingly forced to raid village wells and water storage tanks—sometimes breaking into homes—just to survive.
This competition for scarce water triggers violent human-elephant conflict (HEC), where elephants are seen as threats, not wildlife in need. Retaliatory attacks by affected villagers lead to devastating consequences: approximately 100 human and 300 elephant deaths every year. This cycle of conflict is contributing to the steady decline of Sri Lanka’s elephant population, already listed as Endangered by the IUCN.
The issue highlights the urgent need for sustainable solutions—such as shared water sources, community awareness, and conservation efforts—that promote coexistence rather than confrontation between humans and elephants.
As the designated Mahaweli River Waterkeeper, our mission is to champion the long-term, community-based conservation and sustainable management of Sri Lanka’s most heavily utilized river. Acting as the river’s advocate, we aim to raise awareness about the critical importance of protecting the Mahaweli for current and future generations.
Our efforts will focus on community education, engagement, and empowerment, building grassroots support for conservation through outreach and action. By conducting a comprehensive, science-based assessment of human impacts on the river and its ecosystems, we will generate data to guide informed advocacy and policy recommendations.
The initiative will promote sustainable water management, the protection of the river’s natural biodiversity, and the restoration of degraded ecosystems. Through this work, we seek to ensure the Mahaweli River remains a lifeline for both people and wildlife across Sri Lanka.
We offer individuals and families a rare opportunity to work alongside scientists, conservationists, educators, community partners, and local villagers deep within the heart of beautiful Sri Lanka. Whether you’re traveling alone or with a group, for fun or for business, our programs offer a wide variety of options to meet your needs and fulfill your interests while helping to support our critical conservation and research work.
© 2025 by the Sri Lanka Wildlife Conservation Society
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