Hettiarachchi, Missaka (2024) A Political Ecology of Sri Lanka's Urban and Regional Wetlands. In: UNSPECIFIED, (ed.) Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Sri Lanka. Routledge, London, United Kingdom, pp. 288-299.

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Abstract

Wetlands are transient ecosystems, often used and inhabited by underprivileged communities. In Sri Lanka wetlands are frequently at the centre of social-environmental conflicts emerging from urbanisation and infrastructure expansion. Once treated as the shunned backyards of cities or treacherous landscapes in the regions, wetlands have turned into a hot commodity in the neo-liberal economy. They are seen as potential spaces for urban real estate, green urban showpieces, and a “path of least resistance” for linear infrastructure. Since colonial times, a vast extent of Sri Lankan wetlands have been converted into non-wetland uses or have been ecologically transformed by external environmental stressors. As a result, traditional users and inhabitants have been displaced and dispossessed, and disasters that can be related to wetland loss have increased. This chapter then explores the ecological trajectories of Sri Lanka's urban and regional wetlands, their political-economic drivers, and socio-environmental impacts, through a political ecology lens.

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