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A city is a large human settlement. People are the main driving force in a city. The dynamism of a city is dependent on people and their behaviour. A preliminary understanding of the composition and diverse capabilities of the populations in a city should be the key to a successful urban study.
This section provides a description of the demographic status and trends in the city, primarily based on 2012 census data, presenting an overall view of the population. Trends and patterns of urban population are discussed including aspects of demography such as age, sex, ethnicity, education levels; and overall observations with regard to migration patterns, suburban population and gender.
Understanding the demographic and composition patterns of the population within the existing physical boundary will help in planning a livable city.
Source - Statistical Hand Book (District Secretariat) 2019
The chart above shows the population and number of families in the entire Mannar District over the years. It is noteworthy that there was a clear decline in the population of Mannar during the war. Download the data file below for more information.
Source - Statistical Hand Book (District Secretariat) 2019
Out of the total population within the Mannar Urban Council limits in the year 2018, 50.1% are male and 49.9% are female.Further information on this can be obtained by downloading the following data file which also contains information at the level of all the District Secretariats pertaining to the Mannar District.
Source - Department of Census and Statistics
In 2012 Gender differences in the demography of Manar UC is seen with a higher number of men than woman, a trend was seen in all the major cities in Sri Lanka, but pronounced in Mannar (100.3 men per 100 females, i.e. 49.85% are female). As with other cities, the female elderly population is significantly higher than their male counterparts, and of the total male and female populations in 2012, the male and female elderly proportions were reported to be 8 and 10 percent, respectively, which results from the higher life expectancy of women. The high proportion of elderly women in the UCs poses questions about how their wellbeing can be secured and will be a growing policy concern for many cities and the GoSL as has been the case in many advanced economies with aging populations.
Source - Statistical Hand Book 2019 District Secretariat, Mannar
The graph elaborates the population with age categories in the area. The data here covers the entire Mannar Divisional Secretariat in the year of 2018. By downloading the data file below, you can get the detailed data on the population by age groups for each of the Divisional Secretariat in Mannar district separately.
Source - Statistical Hand Book 2019 District Secretariat, Mannar
The above data shows the ethnicity of the population within the limits of Mannar Divisional Secretariat in 2018 and 1981. It is noteworthy that despite the increase in the Muslim and Tamil populations, there has been a significant decline in the Sinhala population within this Mannar Divisional Secretariat area.
Source - Divisional Secretariat, Mannar Town
The above information shows the ethnicity of the population within the boundaries of the Mannar Divisional Secretariat in 2019. Tamils constitute 59.4% of the population, Muslims 40.5% and Sinhalese 0.1% and others 0.0%.
Source - Department of Census and Statistics
The total population of the Northern Province as per the statistics is 1.246 million, the lowest populous province in the country, with 606,678 males (47.3%) and 639,775 females (52.7%). The population density is 136 persons per Sq. Km as against to 346 for the whole Island. The majority in the province live in areas classified as rural (84.5%), and only 15.5% of the population live in areas classified as urban. The majority of the population i.e. 89% in the province are Sri Lankan Tamils and others are Sri Lankan Moors, Sinhalese and Indian Tamils living in the province. Most of the Sri Lankan Tamils are Hindus, and the other religious persuasions in the province are Christians, Muslims, and a small number of Buddhists. The graph here shows the difference in ethnic composition from province to the district to city. While usually, the city shows a more cosmopolitan nature than the province. The Mannar city reflects the composition of the Province quite closely.
Source - Department of Census and Statistics
One distinctive feature of Sri Lankan culture is how ethnicity, language, and religious affiliation correlate with one another, each being key determinants of an individual’s identity. Alongside the two largest ethnic groups – Sinhalese (74.9%) and Tamil (15.4%) – the third largest ethnic group in Sri Lankan Moors (9.2%). The remaining 0.5% of Sri Lanka’s population is comprised of Burghers (mixed European descent), Parsis (immigrants from west India), and Veddas (who are identified as the indigenous inhabitants of the land). The Tamils separate further into two groups, Sri Lankan Tamils and Indian Tamils. There are three official languages of Sri Lanka: Sinhala, Tamil, and English. This is evident throughout the country, with most signs written in all three languages. The Sinhalese - Buddhist majority mostly speak Sinhala, while Tamil is spoken widely by Sri Lankan Moors / Muslims and ethnic Tamils / Hindus. English was introduced as a result of the British colonial rule and has become the language used in government administration and commercial activities. This graph indicates the categories of ethnic groups and their language abilities.
Source - Department of Census and Statistics
Internal migration has always been one of the forces driving the growth of urbanization and bringing opportunities and challenges to cities, migrants and governments. Increasingly, municipal authorities are becoming recognized as key actors in managing migration and have started including migration in their urban planning and implementation. Thus, for cities to better manage migration, data on migration and urbanization are essential. The total male resident population in the Anuradhapura Municipal Council area is 12173, the total female resident population is 12244 out of which the total male migrant population is 4601 and the total female migrant population is 4380 showing a slightly higher percentage of male immigrants. The majority of this migrant population has resided in the city for more than 10 years, thus more like first-generation citizens rather than migrants.
Education has always been a significant element in societal development. The development of education facilities contributes substantially to the development in an urban area.
As a developing country it is crucial to address poverty in order to attain the development goals. Education plays a major role in poverty reduction. Presently, several global cities have been implementing the concept of smart city to improve the quality of life of the society, including in the field of education.
Good educational institutions and coverage enables a population to have decent livelihoods be they self employed or part of the workforce. Understanding how a city provides primary, secondary and tertiary eductional as well as skill development through vocational centres could provide some pointers to how well a city is doing or where it needs to develop further.
Source - Zonal Education Office, Mannar
There are totally of 7 schools and 4 special education units in the area under the Mannar Urban Council. Among them 1AB schools 4, 1C school 1, TYPE 1 school 1, TYPE 3 school 1 are found.
Source - Office of the Zonal director of Education Mannar Zone
Mannar District has two main educational zones: Madu zone for the inner area of Madu and Mannar zone for the coastal areas which is consisted with three DS Divisions which are namely Mannar Town, Musali and Nanaatan. According to the available data only 40 schools are functioning in the Mannar Education Zone at present situation. Mannar Island itself has 25 schools. Mannar Zone has two types of schools which are 04 National schools and 21 Provincial schools as well as there is no any Private school within the zone. These 21 schools are occupied by Tamil speaking Tamil community students at the same time balance 04 schools are occupied by Tamil speaking Muslim community students. Within the Mannar Zone there are 743 Teachers for entire student population. .The student and teachers ratio is 1:17.
Connectivity is central to key GoSL strategic aims: to promote economic growth, and to rebalance growth across the country’s 9 provinces. Higher the connectivity to any city, better is the urban growth in that city.
Detailed information on key transport aspects including bus and rail transport, freight route maps, airports and logistic systems are aspects that should be considered for a city to be properly interconnected within the bigger system. One of the SDG targets 11.2 is about access to safe, affordable, accessible and sustainable transport systems, road safety, public transport, and if we are to move towards being sustainble, these need to be considered in tranpsort planning. Further, the needs of people in vulnerable situations, women and children, persons with disabilities and older persons should also be considered.
ICT coverage is another way of being connected and recent technological advances enable a city to be better connected through its access to ICTs as well.
Source - Urban Council, Mannar
A total of 167 km of roads are found in the area under the jurisdiction of the Mannar Urban Council. They include Class A - 18KM, Class B - 12KM and Class C - 137KM.
Source - Department of Local Government (N P)
The length of rural roads maintained by the Local Government Institutions in the entire Mannar District is 1122.52 km, out of which the length of the rural roads within the limits of the Mannar Municipal Council is 97.5 km. In addition, although the A and B category roads are not shown in the chart above, the total length of Type A roads in the Mannar District is 114.1km and the total length of Category B roads is 91.12km. For information on routes, visit the data file below.
Cities are the primary drivers of economic development, therefore, Sri Lanka’s cities have a decisive role to play in driving the economy forward by catalysing high value-added economic activities, as the country strives to achieve upper middle-income country status.
According the latest Word Cities report, 80 per cent of global GDP is created by cities, despite their accounting for less than 60 per cent of the world’s population (UN-Habitat, 2016).
The Government of Sri Lanka recognizes the role of urban economy in shaping the future of the country. In this respect, Vision 2025 and Public Investment Programme (PIP) 2017-2020 lays out the urban policy priority actions: to promote western region as economic hub of the southern part of the Indian subcontinent, and to promote strategic city development to secondary urban spaces as provincial economic hubs.
It is also interesting to see how competitive a city is, taking into account current and potential roles of governments, businesses and the private sector in the economic development of the city and urban settlements, best use of human capital, and labour force participation, and existing skills and the job market etc. within demarcated territory.
Source - Statistical Hand Book 2020 Urban Council, Mannar
In the year 2020, about 24772 Kg of Compost were produced by our Urban council and sold at the rate of 10 rupees per kg and the total income was 247720 rupees.
Source - Department of fisheries and aquatic resources, Mannar district office, 2017
Poaching of the Indian Fishermen was highly dominant in the Sri Lankan sea territory near Mannar Island. They able to catch more fish within short time period by using modern equipment and technology which local fishermen didn’t have that. Therefore, exploitation of local marine resource and income of local people affected to the local economy. Graph shows above the details of Indian fishermen arrested within Mannar Island by the Navy of Sri Lanka in the past years.
Source - Department of Fisheries & Aquatic Resources
The Mannar Island has high potential marine resources as Gulf of Mannar, coastel belt with potential fishing areas. Accordingly; 2016 statistical report states that total fish production of Mannar District is nearly 16000 MT. Out of that, Mannar Island produced nearly 10324 MT. When considering the dry fish production, from 2012- 2016, Mannar Island produced averagely 1800MT dry fish. In 2016, the total dry fish production is recorded as 516 MT. Out of the total population nearly 22,345 fishing population from 5779 families are engaging in fishing activities from 19 fishing villages. Around 5247 number of fishermen currently engage in these fishing activities. Fishing is an important economic activity of the people who live in Mannar Island. Most of the fishermen are living in the Thalaimannar, Pesalai, Thalvupadu, Panankaddukottu and Pallimunai areas.
Urban governance can be simplified as “how government (local, regional and national) and stakeholders decide on planning, financing and managing urban areas”. It involves a continuous process of negotiation and contestation over allocation of social and material resources and political power.
This section provide a snapshot of the emergent contours of urban governance in Sri Lanka, focusing on financial resilience, service provision and economic dynamism.
Information available here are collected and calculated considering secondary data sets, ground level surveys as well as stakeholder discussions. The city governance index has taken many a factor into consideration and provides a valuable way of assessing our cities and how they rank from a governance perspective.
Source - Statistical Hand Book 2019 Divisional Secretariat Mannar
There are one Urban Council and four Pradeshiya Sabhas in Mannar District.
Source - Land Use Policy Planning Department
Administratively this district is divided into five Divisional Secretary's Divisions namely MannarTown, Nanattan, Musali, Manthai West, and Madhu and each headed by a Divisional Secretary. There are four Pradeshiya Sabhas and one Urban Council in Mannar District. Predesiya Sabhas are Mannar, Nanattan, Musali, and Manthai West and Mannar Town is upgraded as an Urban Council. The district consists of 153 Grama Niladhai divisions and 587 villages.
Source - Statistical Data of Urban Council Mannar - 2020
Local Authorities Election - 2018 Total Voters 14770 and elected members 16 in Urban Council Mannar.
Source - Statistical Data of Urban Council Mannar - 2020
Total approved cadre of Urban Council Mannar is 118 and now existing cadre 98 and vacant 20 as at 01.Statistical Data of Urban Council Mannar - 01.01.2021.
An important function of Sri Lanka’s cities is to provide housing for the diversity of residents that support urban life. Sri Lankan early urban settlement legacy – histories, patterns, trends including land use and housing and the development challenges that come along with it have shaped the nature of our cities.
The share of housing as a proportion of built-up area across the different cities was considered, and numerous factors affect the figure. e.g. Anuradhapura, has restrictions on residential developments because of its cultural, historical and touristic importance, other MCs include significant social and economic land use, operating as a hub to surrounding suburbs and rural areas with large residential populations.
Housing policy challenges that are encountered by the city administrators relate to tenure systems, the supply of affordable, high quality housing, and difficulties accessing housing finance.
Source - Statistical Hand Book - 2019, Mannar Town
An important function of Sri Lanka’s cities is to provide housing for the diversity of residents that support urban life. The share of housing as a proportion of built-up area across the different cities was considered. Housing policy challenges that are encountered by the city administrators relate to tenure systems, the supply of affordable, high quality housing, and difficulties accessing housing finance.
Source - Statistical Hand Book 2019 District Secretariat, Mannar
There are 7097 families and 6091 houses in urban council Mannar area.
Source - Statistical Hand Book 2019 District Secretariat, Mannar
The graph indicate that in Mannar Urban council almost 71.31 per cent of the houses were permanent in 2018.
Source - Statistical Hand Book (District Secretariat) 2019
The situation regarding resettlement at the level of Mannar Divisional Secretariat is given here separately as the number registered and the number of families actually resettled and the total number of people. Download the data file for more information.
Municipal services is one of the key tasks an urban centre carries out fto ensure a functional living condition for its citizens.
The access to municipal services and the quality of their provision strongly influence the social, economic and environmental performance of a city as well as urban development.
Urban centres provide key services that underpin Sri Lanka’s socioeconomic development. Cities provide key government administration functions, such as vehicle registration services, access to social protection schemes, and a range of additional services (explored in detail in Chapter 9, urban governance in the SoSLC Report). Urban centres provide residents with health and education services: providing equitable access to quality healthcare and education. They also include services to facilitate social recreational activities and promote community cohesion, such as libraries, community centres and sports facilities. Ensuring quality services is a crucial component in securing an urban future for all Sri Lankans.
| Availability of Road Inventory | Yes |
| Availability of Asset register | Yes |
| An online system is available for citizen to request services | No |
| A "reference no" is issued to the citizen requesting services | Yes |
| A "Front Office" is available | Yes |
| All the services can be accessed at a single location (Front Office) by a visiting citizen | Yes |
| Separate Male/Female toilets are available for the visiting citizen | Yes |
Source - Mannar Urban Council
This data represent the 2018 records. Services delivered to the citizens by the local authority is very important to measure the functionalities and capacities of the local authority.
Source - Statistical Hand Book 2020 Urban Council, Mannar
Total number of street lamps at the beginning of the year 2020 were 1800. During the year 2020 upto now 138 new street lamps added.
Source - Mannar Urban Council
Fund alocation for social servises in the area indicate the facilities provided to develop the quality of the socity. The data elaborate on main sectiones in social servises, and how the budget alocations and expenditure took place in 2018.
Source - Statistical Hand Book 2020 Urban Council, Mannar
The Mannar Urban Council collects about 22 metric tons of garbage per day. Of them 04 metric tons of garbage are used for compost. Other garbages are dumped within Premises.
Source - Mannar Urban Council
Providing trainings to the staff will increase the capacities of the officers in managing and decision making. This data explained on provided trainings and the number of officers trained.
Source - National Water Supply & Drainage Board, Mannar
The National Water Supply and Drainage Board has provided water connection to about 7737 houses and 205 shops in the area under the Mannar City Council up to 2019.In earlier days, the residents in the city had to depend on groundwater for their day-to-day needs. Nevertheless, groundwater often was not suitable for drinking purpose due to the saltiness. Consequently, the city had been facing difficulties with the access to drinking water. To overcome this challenge, a pipe born water supply scheme was established in the city and is being operated by National Water Supply and Drainage Board. Three water supply sources are available at present in Mannar Island namely, Murunkan water supply scheme (15,000 m3/day), Keeri well water (2250 m3/day) and ground water within Pesalai PS area (UDA, 2019).
Source - Statistical Hand Book 2019 Urban Council, Mannar
If we take 100% of the places of worship in Mannar Urban council, 2.38% of them are Buddhist temples, 52.38% are Christian churches, 16.67% are Islamic Masjids and 28.57% are Hindu temples.
Source - IWMI Publication - Solid and Liquid Waste Management and Resource Recovery in Sri Lanka: A 20 city analysis
Mannar Urban Council is responsible for collecting MSW and performs these responsibilities with limited resources. The UC has a fleet of vehicles that collect SW from households, commercial places and market on a regular basis. Given the limited amount of resources available in terms of vehicles and labor, and limited access to some localities (difficulties to drive through the by-roads); waste collection in certain areas is only conducted twice a week. Out of the total waste; nearly 68% produced by the residential activity and 4% produced by industrial sector and 28% produced by commercial sector. (UDA, 2019). Composition of the collected waste consists of 33% of biodegradable waste (short term 25% and long term 9%) which is much lower compared to the national average (often more than 50%).
Source - IWMI Publication - Solid and Liquid Waste Management and Resource Recovery in Sri Lanka: A 20 city analysis
Currently, waste segregation is not practiced in Mannar and as a result, large quantities of waste collected by UC are mixed waste. With the financial support provided through the Pilisaru project of CEA and National Solid Waste Management Support Center (NSWMSC) of
Ministry of Local Government and Provincial Councils (MOLGPC) a small-scale compost plant has been established in the UC area. The LA also owns a plastic recycling facility, which is located within the same premises. The laborers separate the plastics, iron and glass from the waste manually and sell them to vendors. The remaining waste ends up being openly dumped in multiple locations around Mannar town. At present there are three places used for dumping purpose, which are located at UC and PS area covering 8 acres land.
A city needs to have an environment that is habitable and conducive with appropriate spaces for people who use the city, while also being resilient in the face of increasing climate risk.
Aspects such as a cities’ air and water quality, quality of the built environment as well as the aesthetic and historic aspects in the city are things we need to look at. However, in the light of increasing disaster risk, managing climate change impact in the light of current urbanisation patterns becomes a key concern, and thus land use planning in a city needs to take this into account.
SDG targets 11.4 (safeguarding cultural and natural heritage) and 11.5 (reducing impacts of disasters, especially floods), 11.6 (air quality and waste) and 11.7 (safe, open and green spaces for all groups) all emphasize that for a city to be sustainable, these aspects need to be considered.
Source - Statistical Hand Book 2019 Divisional Secretariat Mannar
Mannar District is located in the dry zone of the country and less rains are occurring in southwest monsoon period in the area. Considering the flood records in past few years, 2019 is the only year where there is no recorded flood situation according to DMC. As it is clear in the graph here, in 2019, the number of days rained is very low but the rainfall intensity is high. This situation is tallying with the recorded high flood situation in Mannar in 2019. The graph also visualize a five year gap in between similar situations.
Source - Statistical Hand Book 2019 District Secretariat, Mannar
Mannar District has been continuously affected by floods. According to the records in 2018 affected 28 families and 91 people.
Source - Statistical Hand Book 2019 Divisional Secretariat Mannar
Here is the change in the annual values of rainfall from 2015 to 2017. According to the Mannar Observatory station, rainfall in the area is calculated separately for each month and more information can be downloaded from the following detailed statistics.
Source - Department of Meteorology
Here is the change in the annual values of air temprature from 2009 to 2013. According to the Mannar Observatory station, air temprature in the area is calculated separately for each month and more information can be downloaded from the following detailed statistics.
Health conditions (mortality, morbidity, disability) depend not just on standards of living, but on the actual performance of health systems themselves.
Source - Medical Officer of Health, Mannar
Details of dengue cases identified in the area under the Mannar Urban Council during the year 2019 are given on a monthly basis.
Mannar Urban Council area: Mannar Urban Council covers an area of 1411.26 hectares. (Data Source:Survey Department) Download Map Here Download Data Layer Here
Distribution of Grama Niladhari Divisions in Mannar UC: Further details related to its 15 Grama Niladhari Divisions can be seen by downloading the map. (Data Source:Survey Department) Download Map Here Download Data Layer Here
Road Map of Mannar Urban Council: The road map for Mannar Urban Council shows information on the road classifications. Road names are visible in the detailed layer which can be downloaded. This has been updated in 2020.(Data Source _ Openstreetmap) Download Map Here Download Data Layer Here
Map of Distribution of Grama Niladhari Divisions in Mannar District: The ethnic / sex / age composition in the Mannar District, detailed for each of its 152 Grama Niladhari Divisions. (Data Source: Survey Department) Download Map Here Download Data Layer Here
Abandoned Paddy Lands Under Rainfed Catagory: It includes details of abandoned paddy lands in this area, which has a predominantly agricultural economy. (Data Source: Land Use Policy Planning Department)
Proper management of land, a scarce resource, can bring about many benefits. This is of great importance especially in urban areas.
It is timely to figure out how land is allocated and being used for what purpose in our cities today. In order to create well planned cities with a futuristic vision, having a better understanding of current land use is imperative.
Land use maps are categorized into 36 sub-categories under two types – built-up and non built-up. The extent of land in each of these sub categories are indicated below.
In all of the cities it can be identified that the higher densities are concentrated in the city centres and the expansion is taken place along the roads. The expansion pattern is shaped by the geography of the surrounding area.
The selection of the area for the urban expansion analysis was followed by several preliminary studies. Initially, the urban index values which was identified using the remote sensing information were studied in the respective municipal areas including a fringe area.
Before selecting interested area for the expansion analysis it should consider following facts
- Municipal boundary
- At least 2-3 km buffer around Municipal boundary
- Rough boundary where the physical urban character disappearing
In the remote sensing discipline, the values higher than 0 represent the built-up areas.The boundary for the fringe area was identified by getting the extent of urban expansion as well as a fine boundary where the high-density expansion become insignificant. The identified boundaries were projected on to the latest satellite images to assure the identified urban index values are in line with the existing building densities.
