Sri Lanka 50 Years of Metric: Late Changes and Current Usage

Trilingual highway sign in km in modern Sri Lanka 

This is part two of the article "Sri Lanka 50 Years of Metric" giving the story of how Sri Lanka switched to the metric system as this year is the 50th anniversary of Sri Lanka's metric system adoption. Click here to read part one. This part will go over late changes of conversion carried out, the drawbacks that exist today and Sri Lanka's current usage of the metric system. This article will be holding the Sri Lankan government and the National Metric Conversion Authority to account for their performance in converting Sri Lanka to a metric country. The images of the three posters featured in this article were taken at the National Archives of Sri Lanka of the National Metric Conversion Authority Archives Holding #143. The holding details are mentioned in brackets below each poster image.

Late Conversions

Following the National Metric Conversion Authority's disbandment, in the 1980s Sri Lanka was in a

very muddled state of measurement. According to page 326 of "Insight Guides Sri Lanka" Fifth Edition

(1987), during that decade the odometer of some cars were measured in kilometres with other cars in

miles. They also mentioned that most people still thought in imperial units and that the government

was very involved in converting the country to metric. An example of changes that decade was the

new metric construction regulations in 1986 which came as the Planning and Building Regulations.

These regulations were brought under the Urban Development Authority Act via a Government

Gazette.  

The Survey Department of Sri Lanka was metricating their maps in the 1980s. These new metric maps had a scale of 1:50,000 and were completed from 1985 to 1996. The way the 1:50,000 scale works is that 1 millimetre on the map is equal to 50,000 millimetres (50 metres) on the ground. Therefore, 1 centimetre is equal to 0.5 kilometre and 2 centimetres is equal to 1 kilometre. If the whole 1:50,000 scale map of Sri Lanka was drawn, it would have the dimensions of 8.64 metres by 4.48 metres which is 38.71 square metres, the size of a small apartment. For practical purposes, the topographic map of Sri Lanka is divided into 92 map sheets with a name and a sheet number.

A New Measurement Act 

As a result of Sri Lanka having a new measurement system, an act was needed to legally specify the metric system. A new act was created in 1995 which specified the units to be used in its schedules. This act was known as the Measurement Units, Standards and Services Act, No. 35 of 1995. Mrs. Devalakshmi Balasundaram who was part of the National Metric Conversion Authority, was involved in the drafting of this act. The act established the Measurements Units, Standards and Services Department (MUSSD) in 1997. The MUSSD is responsible for Sri Lanka's use of the International System of Units (SI Units). 

Imperial Hangovers 

Unfortunately, a noticeable amount of imperial units continue to be used in Sri Lanka. Feet and inches

are still in widespread use. Height of buildings is usually given in metres, but it's common to see

heights of mountains and above sea level in feet. Feet and/or inches is used in some product

descriptions, dimensions or sizes. Feet is sometimes used in signs and research publications. The

advertising industry uses feet for billboards (which stands in contrast to centimetres used for

newspaper ads). The width of a road is referred to in feet. 

Some industries that use imperial include tailors using inches (which stands in contrast with fabric sold by the metre), golf courses using yards and recipes using inches. British thermal units (BTU) and horsepower are still being used. The Chairman of the National Metric Conversion Authority Mr. H.L.K. Goonetilleke said in a 1979 speech that the Paddy Marketing Board is switching away from the bushel, yet bushels still have some use for paddy in agriculture. Feet has some use in dams. Related to it, acre-feet is still used for reservoir capacity, though it's getting more common to see Million Cubic Metres (MCM) used instead. Cubic feet have some use for natural gas.

Some mileposts remain, though it is mostly kilometre stones which are seen throughout Sri Lanka. A

2004 letter to the editor reported that there are sellers in Gampaha measuring rice in the traditional

seruwa dry measurement as well as textiles sold by the yard. There is also the issue of incorrect metric

usage, where kilometres per hour is usually referred to in the incorrect abbreviation kmph including on

most road signs. The correct abbreviation is km/h.

Temperature

Celsius is used consistently for temperature, yet many Sri Lankans use Fahrenheit for body

temperature. However, progress has been seen in this sector, as it is increasingly common to see Sri

Lankans using Celsius for body temperature. A poster shown below produced during metrication

shows the difference of one degree increments in Celsius for body temperature. Contrast this with the

Fahrenheit scale which uses decimal places for the same information. Also, some devices which heat

tea leaves in tea plantations use Fahrenheit as the equipment is very old. This provides a great

opportunity for Sri Lankan entrepreneurs or the private sector to create new modern digital devices

using Celsius to replace the old ones that could utilise smart technology. 

Poster on Temperature in English made during metrication which is useful in educating Sri Lankans

today about body temperature in Celsius (SLNA 143/57)

Metric Paper 

Sri Lanka uses the metric A4 paper, yet many digital documents are in Letter format (a US non-metric paper size that is shorter and wider than A4) due to the unfortunate issue of piracy, where pirated software is used directly from the US that has US settings. It can also occur in free services like Google Docs due to it having Letter as the default setting. Documents can be changed to A4 in the settings. Using A4 paper for both digital documents and sheets of paper will not give you the extra white space on the top and bottom when printing a Letter document on A4 paper as both dimensions are in alignment.

Metric Area Measurements

Area measurements is a sector that still has imperial set as its primary measurement units. The usual practice in this sector are square feet for houses & buildings and perches, roods & acres for land, though square kilometres are used for the sizes of large lands. Frontage is also referred to in feet. It is worth noting that Dr. Ronald T. Wijewantha (Chairman of the National Metrication Board) mentioned in a 1974 talk that after the metrication process all transactions including land should be in metric and that the Measurement Units, Standards and Services Act, No. 35 of 1995 requires land to be sold in metric units.

However, there are some sectors where metric area measurements have significant use, is the

preferred or standard unit. The government uses metric area measurements as their primary units

such as square metres for built-up areas. However, certain government departments' area

measurements are set to imperial and some government personnel may revert or choose to use those

units. The state run Board of Investment (BOI) has some area investment conditions in imperial and

some in metric which can be confusing for international investors to secure much needed Foreign

Direct Investment (FDI). When it comes to foreign funded or assisted projects, it is common to see

metric area measurements. It is good to see this occurring even in instances when the foreign

involvement comes from another metric country that still measures area in imperial units such as

Singapore or Hong Kong. 

The agricultural industry often uses hectares. Many tea plantation signs give its extent in hectares. I

am not sure if it applies to other agricultural plantations. Hectares is the preferred unit in forestry

including reforestation. Some researchers use hectares in their research on land issues. Surveyors

report in both imperial and metric with hectares being the primary unit. While many architects use

square feet, square metres have some usage in architecture. The construction industry and civil

engineering uses square metres. The floor space for convention and exhibition stalls are rented out in

square metres. Sri Lanka's post-war demining work is done in square metres. It is common to have

square metres used for swimming pools' area. Also, there are the occasional uses of metric area

measurements used in instances with no foreign or government involvement which are the size of a

building/land, property listing of a house, apartment or land and office space for rent or lease. These

instances are listed in either metric and imperial or metric only.   

All metric tea plantation sign including hectares as Ha 

© Martin Silva Cosentino | Dreamstime.com 

According to materials produced during Sri Lanka's metrication, this sector was intended to be

converted properly, as can be seen by posters made about metric area measurements by the National

Metric Conversion Authority featured below. These posters are useful today in educating Sri Lankans

about metric area measurements. Though square metres still isn't frequently used, it is good to see

that this unit has been used in Sri Lanka for a long time, as in 1971 latex/oil blending for the rubber

industry estimated its cost at 50 Rupees per 100 square metres.

Sinhala Conversion Poster on Metric Area Measurements (SLNA 143/61)

English Poster on Metric Area Measurements (SLNA 143/60)

I will mention some factors that may have contributed to the present situation. Many property

transactions are direct person to person. The Metric Units (Consequential Provisions) (Amendment) Act, No. 10 of 1983 that converted laws to metric used decimal places in its square metres conversions from square feet. There is this misconception that when listing small land in metric in Sri Lanka you would use decimal hectares instead of square metres as some government projects use this. 85 square metres sounds better than 0.0085 hectares. It is interesting to note that the 6th Departmental Survey Regulations by the Survey Department published this year, mentioned that if land surveyed has one or more decimal points in hectares, its equivalent size should be provided in square metres to assist the layman.

The government had two opportunities to educate the public and convert the area measurement sector

to metric which they unfortunately did not use. The first was during Sri Lanka's metrication, as square

metres could have easily been introduced to the general public while it was being introduced to the

construction industry. The second was with the passing of the Measurement Units, Standards and

Services Act in 1995. Those interested in this topic may wish to check out my article "The Case for

Metric Land Measurements in Sri Lanka" about this issue. 

Media

The media keep using certain imperial units most notably feet, inches, imperial area units, and to a

lesser extent yards and miles. This encourages Sri Lankans to sometimes think in old units, especially

the younger generations who have been educated in metric. It is not good to see an article using feet

many times without a mention of metres after several decades of metrication. 

Government

Most legislation is in metric, and there is a small amount of imperial legislation that remains either due

to those legislations having not converted or with the government's continued use of imperial in some

sectors. The government's main continuing imperial use includes feet and imperial area measurements

in legislation, regulations, projects or studies. 

Confusing Mix-Ups

Having feet and inches in widespread use results in some cases of a confusing mix-up of units. I will

mention a few of these I have noticed. Doors sold with height/width dimensions in feet and thickness in

millimetres - the correct practice is millimetres for all units. Exercise books giving dimensions in inches

and paper quality in grams per square metre (gsm) - the correct practice is dimensions in millimetres

or centimetres and paper quality in gsm. It is due to an incorrect perception in Sri Lanka of the foot

being a valid alternative to the metre and the inch being a valid alternative to the centimetre that leads

to these non-legal units having official uses with laws on metric units being ignored. Going back and

forth between feet and metres which occurs in Sri Lanka can lead you to confuse one unit with the

other.  

Suggestions to Complete Metrication

The main reason for some continuing imperial usage is because the National Metric Conversion Authority let the old units continue to be used alongside their metric counterparts in some sectors according to Dr. G.M.S. de Silva (Secretary of the National Metrication Board) in his article "Confusion over half-way conversions". Our continuing use of imperial in some sectors is preventing us from using the full potential of the metric system. It is unfortunate that some units that are no longer legal continue to be used. As this is the 50th anniversary of the metric system adoption in Sri Lanka, I think it is good to strive for a better usage of the metric system. This includes getting familiar with and using metric units in a sector where it is not common, e.g. road widths in metres, tailoring in millimetres, body temperature in Celsius, etc.

The following are my suggestions to complete metrication. I call on the MUSSD to carry out a study on

how well Sri Lanka is using the metric system and work to complete metrication. The MUSSD should

convert industries still using imperial including tailoring and area measurements to metric. Businesses

selling rates and/or working in old units should be required to switch. The MUSSD should come up

with requirements and give industries a timeframe to get used to it before enforcing it. They can

educate industry & the general public on body temperature in Celsius, square metres and hectares

including incorporating those units into schools' and higher education institutions' curriculums. The

media should introduce metric guidelines for their staff and metricate their newspaper property listings.

Further, future speed signs should use the correct abbreviation km/h with the existing ones gradually

replaced. 

Examples of Metric Usage in Day to Day Life

The following are examples of metric usage in Sri Lanka right now.

Petrol filling station in litres

Height above sea level of town Balana at train station in metres

5 metre bridge height clearance sign

 

Distance sign in kilometres

Kilometre stones

Distance signs to places in metres

Supermarket items in kilograms

5000 millilitre (5 litre) bottled water

Celsius oven 

Tissue sizes in millimetres 

Conclusion - Metric Sri Lanka

While it is true that some imperial usage continues, the metric system is the measurement system used by Sri Lankans. We have made significant progress from the muddled measurement of the 1980s. Metric usage has been increasing in Sri Lanka due to the younger generations being the most metricated. Even the less popular metric units square metres, hectares and body temperature in Celsius are used more. Metric units are frequently seen throughout Sri Lanka. Thank you very much to former Surveyor General of Sri Lanka Mr. Elmore Perera for taking the time to be interviewed by me to discuss metrication in the Survey Department, Director General of the National Archives of Sri Lanka Dr. Nadeera Rupesinghe for her assistance prior to visiting the National Archives and to Prof. David Robson (Architecture) & Dr. Lalith Goonatilake (Trade & Development Specialist) for responding to my queries relating to this article.

Making Sri Lanka a metric country helped the country's exports and made measurement more convenient for the country. Sri Lankans' use of the metric system in their day to day life includes purchasing food by the kilogram, filling up petrol by the litre, reading the weather in Celsius and driving distances in kilometres & speeds in kilometres per hour. Sri Lanka has used the metric system for 50 years and will continue doing so going forward. 

The Case for Metric Land Measurements in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka adopted the metric system in the 1970s, yet (with the exception of square kilometres) land

is usually measured the imperial way of square feet, perches, roods and acres instead of the metric

way of of square metres and hectares. In this article, I will say why I think Sri Lanka should use

metric units for land measurements giving its benefits. I will also give information on the sizes of

square metres & hectares and list the metric land sizes of famous landmarks in Sri Lanka.

Interrelatedness of Different Units

I’ll begin with the way the metric measurements relate to each other. The metric system uses units of

10, so the different metric units fit well together. There are 10,000 square metres in a hectare, 100

hectares in a square kilometre and a million square metres in a square kilometre. I’ll now show the

the same land size in different metric units. Let’s say there’s a land area equaling 68,000 square

metres. That land in hectares would be equal to 6.8 hectares. This is instantly converting from one

metric unit to another from just looking at it. It gets even better. An area of 365 hectares would equal

3.65 square kilometres or 3.65 million square metres.

The imperial measurements don’t have this nice blend of unity as there are 43,560 square feet in an

acre, 640 acres in a square mile and 27 million 878,400 square feet in a square mile. I will use

figures like I used for metric units to show the disconnect between imperial units unlike their metric

counterparts. A land area of 680,000 square feet (63,174.07 square metres) would equal 15.61

acres (6.31 hectares). An area of 950 acres (384.45 hectares) would equal 1.48 square miles (3.84

square kilometres) or 41 million 382,000 square feet (3.84 million square metres). Here’s an image I

created showing how the metric land measurements relate to each other. Feel free to use this

image.

Official Land Units

The official units for measuring land in Sri Lanka smaller than square kilometres aren’t the square

foot, perch, rood and acre, but the square metre and the hectare. Those responsible for Sri Lanka’s

metric conversion failed to educate the public on metric land sizes and metricate the real estate

sector. Thus, the real estate industry and media still use imperial units for land resulting in the public

thinking in these old units.

Imperial Land Units Bring Inconsistency

There is the issue of inconsistency resulting from referring to land measurements the imperial way.

We might think of a distance as 50 metres ahead, the building as 200 metres tall, but think of built-up

area in square feet. An example of this inconsistency in property listings is referring to a
house/apartment size in square feet and the distance to a road in metres. In reverse, we may think

of very large lands in square kilometres (such as the size of Colombo), yet think of lands smaller than

that as well as those in the square kilometre ranges in acres. Acres don’t neatly fit into square

kilometres as there are 247.1 acres in a square kilometre.

Opportunity for More Precise Land Measurements

Sri Lankan land sizes in square feet usually end in the neat number of 0, so may not be accurately

reflecting the size with a lot of rounding off. While the same practice can be done with square

metres, surveying in metric gives the opportunity to give more precise measurements with land sizes

rounded off to the nearest square metre. With this approach, a land size of 266.36 square metres

would be listed as 266 square metres and a land size of 457.73 square metres would be listed as

458 square metres.

Complexities of the Acre-Rood-Perch System

Regarding the perch unit, it’s actually a length measurement, with what we refer to a perch being

technically a square perch (25.29 square metres). The way it works is there’s a rod, pole or perch

that’s 5½ yards (5.03 metres) long. 40 perches equal a rood (1011.71 square metres) and 4 roods

equal an acre (4046.86 square metres). The rod (another name for the length perch) could get

confused with the rood. Also, someone surveying land in perches could get confused with the perch

for length and the perch for area. There are some instances of land sold in more than in one unit,

with it being sold in x roods and y perches or x acres, y roods and z perches. Having more than one

unit results in the consumer having to visualise the land in each unit adding unnecessary effort which

is much simpler in metric as it lists the land size in only one unit.  

Simplicity of Calculation

Most Sri Lankan house plans are in feet and inches. If you’re using square feet and you’re

calculating the amount of square feet in a room that has feet and inches (as opposed to just feet) on

one or both sides, it gets difficult to calculate as the amount of inches in a foot (12) isn’t decimal. If

you’re measuring square metres in a room that has one or both sides not being an exact metre, say

2.8 by 3.6 metres, you just multiply the two together which would equal 10.08 square metres or 10 square metres to round it off.

Synergy with the Construction Industry

Regarding house plans in feet and inches, I suspect that they are conversions from builders’ plans in

millimetres. Converting room dimensions from millimetres to feet and inches is a difficult exercise

that changes dimensions from a logical simple set of measurements into an uneven complicated set

of measurements. I think they should be converted to metres instead, which can be easily done by

just dividing the millimetre values by 1000. Doing so saves time and effort in converting figures for

the real estate professional or builder. Having the real estate industry using metric can prevent

difficulties coming up with the construction industry using metric and the real estate industry using imperial.

Fixing the Land Measurement Muddle

A land measurement muddle exists in Sri Lanka. An article or piece of text might have both square

feet and square metres, acres and hectares or kilograms per acre and kilograms per hectare in the

same document, paragraph or even sentence. Going back and forth between two units can result in

someone confusing a figure from one unit to the next. This sometimes results in someone writing a

metric value as an imperial one e.g. writing 30 hectares as 30 acres. Another cause of this is our

reluctance to think of land in metric. If someone mistakenly refers to a hectares value as an acres

value it gives the impression it's 2.47 times smaller, an acres value as a hectares value it gives the

impression it’s 2.47 times larger, a square feet value in square metres which gives the impression it’s

10.76 times larger, a square metres value in square feet which gives the impression it’s 10.76 times

smaller. Also, this land measurement muddle sometimes results in metric and imperial units of

different sizes put together, e.g. square feet and hectares.  

One Unit for Land & Living Area Instead of Two

Most Sri Lankan house property listings use perches for the land area and square feet for the living area. Having two different units for property does not show the difference between the land and living area clearly, with the easiest way to tell the difference being through conversions. This combination of units sometimes even hides errors such as the house size being listed as larger than the land size. It’s worth noting that these units are both imperial, yet the amount of square feet doesn’t neatly align with a perch, as there are 272.25 square feet in a perch. This shows a weakness of the imperial system, which puts a collection of many different units together as a system e.g. square feet doesn’t appear to be part of the acre-rood-perch system, but is dictated to be grouped together with perches as they are both imperial. When using square metres, it would be the same unit for both land area and living area which would easily reflect the difference between the two.

Tips for Visualising Metric Land Sizes

As we have been using our knowledge of kilometres to visualise square kilometres, we are also capable of using our knowledge of kilometres and metres to visualise square metres and hectares especially due to Sri Lankan road signs using metres and kilometres. Using square metres would match with seeing metres on road signs. A way we can think in square metres is to apply our knowledge of metres to building dimensions by thinking of the lengths of the wall (room dimensions) in metres instead of feet as well as picturing metres squared in the same way we picture kilometres squared.

A way to understand hectares is to think of square kilometres and think smaller. As 100 hectares is a

square kilometre, when it comes to land smaller than a 100 hectares, such as 65 hectares we can

think of that land as 65% of a square kilometre. For larger land we can divide it by 100 and then get

the value in square kilometres. The Sri Lankan agricultural industry is an industry that often uses

hectares, with many Sri Lankan tea plantations listing their land sizes in hectares. If you ever visit a

tea plantation in Sri Lanka that uses hectares, that can help you visualise hectares. Also, the total

land size of Independence Square is almost 1 hectare, so visiting Independence Square should give

you an idea on the size of a hectare. A hectare is an area of land covering 100 metres x 100

metres, so thinking of an area of land with 100 metres on both sides is another way to visualise

hectares.  

List of Sri Lankan Landmarks in Metric

Here is a list of Sri Lankan landmarks in metric sizes. The purpose of this list is to help Sri Lankans

understand and visualise metric land measurements and to positively affirm Sri Lanka’s status as a

metric country.

• Jaffna Fort - 22 hectares
• Hakgala Botanical Gardens - 28 hectares
• Royal Botanical Gardens, Peradeniya - 59 hectares
• University of Peradeniya - 700 hectares
• Including University Park (developed area) - 150 hectares
• Kandy Lake - 19.01 hectares
• Kandy City Centre - 44,000 square metres
• Galle Fort - 52 hectares
• Galle Face Green - 5.7 hectares
• Hyde Park, Colombo - 249 hectares
• Viharamahadevi Park - 18.8 hectares
• Independence Square - Total size 9,859 square metres (Almost a hectare)
• Beira Lake - 65 hectares
• Town Hall Square - 50.8 hectares
• Dutch Hospital - Land area 5,000 square metres
• BMICH (Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall) - Total land area 13 hectares
• Floor Area - 32,540 square metres
• New Main Hall - 1,836 square metres
• Main Assembly Hall - 648 square metres
• Banquet Hall - 651 square metres
• Cinema Hall - 238 square metres
• Exhibition and Convention Centre - 4,500 square metres
• BCIS Auditorium - 131 square metres
• Restaurant - 308 square metres
• Cinema Lounge - 264 square metres
• Balcony Lounge -  1,125 square metres
• Press Lounge - 200 square metres
• SLECC (Sri Lanka Exhibition & Convention Centre) - 4,000 square metres

Kandy Lake, comprising an area of 19.01 hectares

Galle Fort, comprising an area of 52 hectares

Landmark Independence Square is about 1 hectare in size

What You Can Do

These are some things you can do if you want to see Sri Lanka using metric land measurements:

• Survey your house/land/business in metric if you don’t already know it, and tell people its size in metric when talking of its size.
• Request a real estate provider (or anyone you're interested in buying land from) to sell land in metric telling them the benefits of it and point out that we’re a metric country.
• Sell, rent or lease your property/business in metric units.
• If you’re in real estate, have a planned conversion program of one or two years to convert your business to selling land in metric units where you educate your customers on the sizes of square metres and hectares.
• Write an article calling for metric land measurements to be used in Sri Lanka.
• If you’re a school teacher, teach your students to think in square metres and hectares.
• Promote the use of metric land measurements on social media.
• Start a Facebook group calling for metric land measurements to be used in Sri Lanka. 

Conclusion

The reason imperial units for land measurement got into our system is because we are a former

British colony who inherited the imperial system from the British. The metric system is something we

adopted ourselves unlike the imperial system that we got given to us by the British. Using metric

units for land measurement is easier to use than their imperial counterparts and it reflects our

independence thus it is true to our status as a metric country of 65,610 square kilometres.