News
People’s plight in Puttalam
View(s):While parts of the country have been experiencing floods, areas like the Puttalam District are experiencing drought conditions.
According to the Disaster Management Centre, the ongoing drought has adversely affected 36,394 families comprising 129,276 persons who have been left without access to drinking water.
Villagers say the district has not received proper rainfall for around two years.
Over 90% of the tanks in the Puttalam District have run dry
Villagers in 161 Grama Niladhari Divisions -13 out of 16 Divisional Secretarial Divisions- have been affected by the adverse climatic conditions.
Over 90 per cent of the tanks in the district have reportedly run dry and cannot be used for irrigation purposes.
As a temporary measure wells have been dug in irrigation tanks to provide drinking water to the villagers.
Providing water for wild life -an age-old problem for the wild life authorities- has been greatly aggravated. Cattle farmers too have been adversely affected by the continuing drought.
All wells in the villages of Nawagathegama, Wanathavillu and Karuwelagaswewa have run dry and the people forced to depend exclusively on water supplied by bowsers organized by the Disaster Management Units.
Even parts of Dankotuwa are badly affected and the search for drinking water is proving to be a problem.
The current drought has also affected the education of students in the area with school children unable to wash their clothes. As a result a number of children are unable to attend school.
Pix by Hiran Priyankara Jayasinghe
Children are unable to attend school as there is little water to wash clothes
Young and old on the long trek for water