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Muruthana villagers in Negombo say quarry activities polluting their wells
View(s):As parts of the country reel from the effects of a prolonged drought, people living along the Maha Oya bank are struggling to find drinking water due to pollution.
The worst affected are those living in the Muruthana village in Negombo, located just below the Bambukuliya water treatment plant. Villagers charge that the activities connected to the quarry in the area was polluting the water treatment plant which in turn was making the water in their wells undrinkable.
Some local councillors have made arrangements to send bowsers to the people but with no long term solution in sight 425 villagers from Muruthana have signed a petition to President Maithripala Sirisena asking for a water supply line and asking that steps be taken to preserve the remaining water resources.
Residents charge that although President Sirisena has directed the Geological and Mines Survey Department to do a survey on the quality of the water in the wells no report has been forthcoming.
A villager in Muruthana ,who didn’t want to be named said that he had been using water from the well for about 24 years but now the water was not suitable for drinking. Hence he is forced to spend about Rs.2000 a month to buy potable water.
The Bambukuliya treatment plant was started by a private company in 1962. It releases 35,000 litres of drinking water a day.
Text and pix by K.L. Richard Walter Perera
Residents say the water in their wells cannot be used for drinking purposes
The contaminated water treatment plant