A Development Project or a Land Grab? The Revived Kivul Oya Project Explained

In January 2026, the Sri Lankan cabinet approved the restart of the Kivul Oya Development Project, an irrigation scheme originally approved in 2011 to serve the Vavuniya and Mullaitivu Districts. On the surface, it looks like a long-overdue infrastructure investment. But for Tamil communities who have farmed this land for decades, it raises a deeply unsettling question: is this really about development, or is it about land?

What Is the Kivul Oya Project?

The Kivul Oya Project falls under the Mahaweli L Scheme, a large-scale irrigation and settlement programme in Sri Lanka’s North. The project was originally estimated to cost Rs. 4,170 million in 2011. That figure has since ballooned to Rs. 23,456 million. Construction was paused in 2023 amid the country’s economic crisis, and a new timeline of 2026 to 2031 has now been set.

The stated aim is to improve agricultural output; the area has real potential for wetland rice and upland crops. But the Mahaweli L Scheme carries a fraught history. CPA has long documented how it has been used as a vehicle for demographic change in the North and East, and the current revival does nothing to dispel those concerns.

The Land Problem

According to a letter submitted by the Tamil community of the area to the District Secretary of Mullaitivu, 1,615 acres of their paddy lands were confiscated for the project. The affected lands span multiple villages across the Maritimepattu division, including areas in Kokkuthoduvai, Kokkilai, and Karunatkerni.

More troubling still, reports indicate that over 7,000 people are to be settled in the Mahaweli “L” zone, and that these settlers would be exclusively Sinhalese. No lands appear to have been allocated to minority communities. This is not a minor oversight. It is precisely the kind of arrangement that CPA first flagged in its 2011 report on land issues in the Northern Province, where development is used as cover to transfer land away from minority communities and alter the ethnic composition of an area.

The Environmental Cost

The human rights concerns sit alongside significant environmental ones. The project’s own Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) identifies serious negative consequences, including:

The loss of approximately 2,500 hectares of forestland currently inhabited by wildlife
A worsening of the human-elephant conflict in parts of the affected area
Reduced water flow downstream of the dam site
Risks of salinisation and agrochemical pollution
Disturbance to historically and archaeologically important sites

The government has proposed a reforestation programme costing Rs. 720 million and Rs. 100 million for electric fencing as mitigation measures. Whether these compensatory steps are adequate, given the scale of the environmental disruption, is far from clear.

The archaeological dimension is also significant. CPA has been informed that numerous small irrigation tanks and ancient Tamil villages north of Vavuniya, including Kattupūvarasankulam, Kanchuramottai, and part of Maruthodai, risk becoming water-retention areas of the proposed dam.

A Pattern That Demands Scrutiny

The Kivul Oya project does not exist in isolation. It is the latest in a series of moves that have put land rights in the North and East under pressure. In March 2025, a government gazette affecting land ownership in the Northern Province had to be withdrawn following protests and a Supreme Court challenge. The revival of this project follows the same pattern: decisions made without genuine consultation with affected communities, and with consequences that fall disproportionately on minority groups.

The project was initiated under then-President Mahinda Rajapaksa, continued under Gotabaya Rajapaksa, and is now being taken forward by the present government. At each stage, the concerns of Tamil farmers and residents have not been meaningfully addressed.

The government is urged to address a straightforward question: why continue with a project that communities have consistently opposed, which originated under a government criticised for ethno-nationalist land policies, and that seemingly offers no land allocations to the very minority communities whose lands are being taken? Land has historically been a root cause of Sri Lanka’s decades-long conflict. Decisions like this do not help heal that wound and may risk reopening it.

References

Land Ownership, Use, Alienation & Development: Revisiting the Proposed Kivul Oya Project