The Living Legacies of Mega Water-Development Projects: Power, Politics, and the Afterlives of Sri Lanka's Mahaweli Development Project

Abstract

While the uneven consequences of mega water-development projects are well documented, less is known about how their legacies continue to evolve over time. This paper offers new theoretical and empirical insights into water governance through a critical analysis of the afterlives of Sri Lanka’s Mahaweli Development Project (MDP). Drawing on critical development studies, hydrosocial literature, and research on infrastructure politics, we illustrate how the living legacies of the MDP continue to evolve, emerge, and influence change well beyond the project’s life-cycle and intended scope. Based on qualitative research conducted between 2017 and 2023, our study reveals how the afterlives of the MDP have become intertwined with present-day socio-ecological challenges, water governance, and climate politics in Sri Lanka. We develop a longitudinal analysis showing how the MDP has produced an evolving series of socio-ecological issues that are difficult to detect, as they manifest intergenerationally. Additionally, we demonstrate how contemporary water, development, and climate interventions in Sri Lanka are shaped by a socio-ecological and political-institutional landscape still heavily influenced by the MDP’s afterlife. We conclude by stressing the need for greater attention to how the afterlives of mega water-development projects continue to evolve, particularly as they increasingly intersect with the effects and politics of climate change, both in Sri Lanka and globally.