Climate change awareness and perception among the community residing nearby areas of Batticaloa lagoon in Sri Lanka

Quality characteristics of the water can be influenced by many factors including environment, climate, management and manmade activities. These factors are responsible for the alteration of quality as well as quantity of water in every reservoir. Among those, climatic change is the key determinant of the sustainability of the ecosystems. Therefore, understanding the climatic change and its impact on Batticaloa Lagoon environment is important for its management in the future.

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In this view, the present study was conducted during the period from 2012 to 2014 with the aim of assessing the extent of community awareness and perception on climate change and its impacts on Batticaloa Lagoon environment, Sri Lanka. A survey was conducted with 406 respondents who are residing in nearby areas of the Lagoon. Data were analysed using SPSS software and MS Excel. Results revealed that, 81.4% of them heard about or clearly known about the climatic changes. In most cases, the awareness was gained through their own experience (74%) and via the media. Nearly 84% of the respondents mentioned that the lagoon water quality degradation linked with the climate changes. However, few of them (8%) reported that the human impacts are greater than the climatic impacts on water quality degradation in lagoon environment. Around 55.6% of the respondents expressed that the amount of rainfall for the last few years has been increased and finally it led to the flooding conditions. Continuous flooding (77%) in those areas was recognised as the problematic nature which led to the pollution of lagoon water as well as groundwater. Community response and expectations on the changing pattern of rainfall and impacts of climate change on economic activities were further evaluated in this study. The collected data and results therefore will be used to develop adaptation measures against climate change and for the formulation of the Batticaloa Lagoon management plan