- Introduction
The signatories to this MOU will be referred to as the Water Resources Leaders Forum (WRLF). The signatories, as members of the WRLF agree to support and adopt the objectives, purposes methods, procedures and guidelines developed by the WRLF in the interest of achieving a coordinated approach to development and management of projects for water resource management, initially in the Northern Province of Sri Lanka.
World Vision Sri Lanka (WVL) which has significant institutional knowledge and experience in the area of water resource management agrees to act as a backbone organization to assist the WRLF in carrying out its objectives and purposes. The terms of the agreement between WRLF and WVL are contained in an MOU that may be reviewed by clicking the WVL MOU under the World Vision page of this website. While WVL continues to work on water resources management projects approved by its Board, it also helps members of the WRLF gain a broader perspective on need and priorities by district and assists members with integrated approaches to project development. In addition, WVL facilitates interactions with Governmental entities, academic institutions and stakeholders to achieve a coordinated approach to water resources development and management, initially in the Northern Province of Sri Lanka.
2. Objectives and Purpose
The objective of the WRLF platform is to facilitate and coordinate the efforts of WRLF members, involved in the development and management of water resources in the northern province, through participation in an interactive platform for data and information sharing, coordination and education. The purpose of this effort is to enhance the overall effectiveness and efficiency of water resource development and management in the areas of minor tank restoration, rainwater harvesting, flood mitigation and conservation.
3. Approach
The platform helps forum members by:
- making relevant planning information available to enable identification of need, prioritization, scoping and development of projects in an integrated manner;
- providing educational material and information on best practices for project design, project construction, project implementation and operations, and
- facilitating discussions, communications and data sharing between project developers, funding organizations, stakeholders, farming groups, Governmental entities and educational institutions to facilitate coordinated action toward meeting the objectives of the WRLF.
4. Governance
A Governance committee has been established in order to develop and operate the WRLF platform during the initial term of the MOU. The following sets out the functional roles and responsibilities of the Governance Committee:
Member Enrolment & Interactions:
- Communicate with parties involved in projects for water resource development and management, provide information respecting the platform, enable enrolment and facilitate active participation and interaction of members via the platform
- Enable project developers to connect and transact with funding organizations
- Respond to inquiries from members
Planning and Identification of Need:
- Enable member access (through the platform), to information residing in other relevant public domains respecting water resources planning, by district
- Gather information by connecting with academic institutions, farming organizations, Governmental bodies, as well as, the data mining and data visualization function of the WRLF and, post to the platform, periodic reports identifying and describing need and prioritization of projects, based on criteria used by World Vision Sri Lanka for water resources development
Education on Project Best Practices:
- Upload and periodically update to the platform, best practices information on project scoping, project design, project execution and operations
Data Mining and Data visualization:
- Identify and procure appropriate public software for purposes of generating data visualization maps and other reports from the platform’s database
- Design systems and methods (automated as much as possible) to enable and facilitate data mining and capture
- Identify and document, sources for data mining and collection, to enable flow and upload of meta data (such as water supply, water demand, agricultural use etc., by district), as well as, project level data, to the WRLF platform’s database
- Design of data fields (in spreadsheet format) required for effective meta data (example: water supply, demand, use by sector) collection, to enable creation of relevant data visualization maps and other statistical reports
- Design of data fields (in spreadsheet format) required for project level data collection to enable creation of relevant data visualization maps and other statistical reports
Data Collection, Upload and Follow up:
- Communicate with data sources identified by the data mining and data visualization function to enable and facilitate data transfer to the WRLF database
- Oversight of data collection, data upload and follow up including due diligence assessment to verify integrity of data
Platform Policy and Procedure:
- Responsible for design and hosting of the WRLF website
- Designing systems and methods for effective functioning of the platform
- Oversee granting of access for data uploads to the platform
The members of the Governance Committee and their responsibility areas for the initial term of the MOU are:
Reginald Jeganathan- Data Collection, Upload and Follow up, Vice Chair of the Committee
Ramanitharan Kandiah- Data Mining and Data Visualization
Rajan Navaratnam- Planning and Identification of Need
Daniel Nesakumar- Member Enrolment & Interactions
Raj Retnanandan- Platform Policy and Procedure and Chair of the Committee
Clarence Sutharsan- Education on Project Best Practices and, Planning and Identification of Need
Dhanan Senathiraja-World Vision Sri Lanka (Backbone Organization)
Thayaparan Thangavelautham- Member Enrolment & Interactions
The number of Governance Committee positions shall not be less than 6 and no more than 12. If as a result resignations or other reasons the Governance committee numbers drop below 6, vacancies needed to restore the numbers to 6 shall be filed by the Governance Committee.
5. Term of MOU
The initial term of the MOU is two years commencing October 1, 2021 and ending in August 31, 2023. Three months prior to expiry of the MOU the Chair of the Governance committee shall notify the membership regarding expiry of the MOU and set a date for a web based general meeting of members to be held no less than two months prior to expiry of the MOU. At that time the Chair shall request nominations for serving on the Governance Committee for the next term of the MOU.
At the general meeting the following shall be considered, among others, based on proposals put forward by the Chair of the Governance Committee:
- Motion respecting extension of MOU
- Motion respecting changes to the MOU
- Election of next Governance Committee
Voting shall be conducted through show of hands at the web based general meeting.
6. Disclaimer
The WRLF forum and platform is a voluntary organization established for the purpose of educating, informing and coordinating the activities of those involved in water resource development and management, initially in the Northern Province of Sri Lanka. While the Governance committee of the Forum will make every effort to ensure the validity and integrity of information posted to the website, the Forum members and Governance Committee assume no liability for any matters arising from reliance on the website by any person or corporate entity.