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Punishing drought takes heavy toll across Puttalam district
The Puttalam district is experiencing its worst ever drought in the past four and a half decades – and the residents suffering from its devastating effects lament the Government’s assistance is woefully inadequate.
Thabbowa: Dead monkeys on tree tops
A Sunday Times investigation found that the drought has affected more than 164,000 people in 14 of the district’s 16 divisions. The Disaster Management Center’s (DMC) Puttalam office has deployed 17 water bowsers to distribute drinking water to the residents, whereas the situation demands at least double that number to meet the drinking water requirement of the residents. According to DMC’s own admission, at least another 19 bowsers are needed.
District Secretary N.M.N. Chitrananda said the most pressing problem faced by officials engaged in providing drinking water to the affected people was that even the few remaining water sources were fast drying up As such, he said he had instructed divisional secretaries to dig wells at the bottom of dried up water tanks. Permission has also been granted to construct tube wells, overruling objections raised by the Water Resources Board, he said.
The drought, now into its ninth month, has also dealt a severe blow to the economic life of the people who make a living out of cultivation. About 1,250 of the district’s 1,300 small irrigation tanks have now dried up. The water levels of the district’s two main reservoirs at Inginitimitiya and Thabbowa have decreased drastically. Paddy cultivation is at an all-time low while subsidiary crops such as betel, bananas and tea have also been virtually wiped out.
In Nawagattegama, more than100 betel fields have been affected. As a result, about 500 daily paid labourers have lost their jobs, Divisional Secretary R.P.G. Podineris said.
Those engaged in inland fishing said they would also be jobless soon if the drought continued.
Also hit by the punishing drought are dairy farmers. With grazing areas fast dwindling and water in short supply, farmers struggle to keep their cattle alive.
According to North Central Province’s Department of Animal Production and Health, some 50,000 cattle in the Puttalam district are at risk due to severe food and water shortages.
The prolonged drought has also severely disturbed the region’s eco-system. Forest areas are scattered with the carcasses of wild animals which died agonising deaths without water. Bodies of dead monkeys on trees are a common sight.