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| Sunday, 28 March 2004 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Drought attack - lives and livelihood in peril by Shanika Sriyananda
With waterways going dry and once fertile fields reduced to parched tracks the ongoing drought has severely affected the lives and livelihood of several hundred thousand families compelling relief agencies to warn aganst of possible outbreak of diseases. Nine districts in the country are said to be affected by the drought, three of them reeling under the impact. According to relief agencies, villagers in Anuradhapura, Kurunegala and Puttalam districts are force to walk miles in search of drinking water. Some have even been driven to digging holes in the dried-up river beds to look for water. Over 320 families in the districts of Anuradhapura, Kurunegala and Puttalam have been affected and large tracks of paddy and other crop have been destroyed. According to the drought situation report prepared by the Sri Lanka Red Cross Society (SLRCS) with the assistance of government officials including Government Agents in the drought stricken districts the prevailing drought has destroyed all crops and brought agricultural activities to a standstill.
The SLRCS has called for financial assistance and long-term proposals to prevent droughts in future and has proposed that government implement a well planned water tank renovation programme to cope with droughts in the future. The report has also taken the governement to task for neglecting the maintenance of the well planned ancient irrigation water management systems in Anuradhapura and ignoring suggestions to renovate the tanks for the past two decades. The report, which was released last week, has warned the public of a possible outbreak of diseases in drought stricken areas due to unhealthy bathing and sanitation practices of the villagers. According to the findings, the remaining water in tanks and reservoirs in these districts are getting polluted due to unhealthy sanitation activities. The SLRC report also states that 'the use of water from tube wells for drinking purposes at village level will increase the vulnerability of kidney diseases as there is no water purification.
The Anuradhapura district, which is blessed with several major reservoirs and tanks, is experiencing the worst drought in 50 years. This ancient city with rich agricultural lands last experienced rains in August 2003 and the water in the main reservoirs - Tissa and Nuwara - are at very low levels while several other tanks and wells have already run dry. The water level of Nuwara Wewa dropped to 5.5 feet. The drought has destroyed the entire paddy, chena and coconut cultivations and also the vegetable crops. The ancient irrigation systems have low water storing capacity due to heavy silting. Water levels in most of the tanks in the Anuradhapura district have dropped by 80 - 90 percent. Drinking water is the major problem faced by the city and village folks in the three districts, as most of the drinking water sources have been dried up. According to the Government Agents, drinking water is currently being supplied by bowsers, which bring water from remote areas. V. Sathyanandan, Chairman National Water Supply and Drainage Board (NWSDB) told the 'Sunday Observer' that the Board was doing its best to provide clean drinking water to people affected by drought. "Though there is a drought, we have not imposed water cuts", he said. According to Sathyanandan there had been heavy rains in Anuradhapura district but not sufficient "to raise the water levels, if heavy rains continue for couple of days, the water levels will be sufficient to supply drinking water for the next week," he said. "We provided bowsers to distribute water and hope the drought situation will come to an end soon", he said. Dr. Sarath Weerasena, Director General of Department of Agriculture said that of 25 districts only two districts - Anuradhapura and Kurunegala were severely affected. "The paddy cultivation in Hambantota, which was affected by the drought last time, is much better than expected", he said. Weerasena pointed out that rice production had gone down by 10 percent but claimed that there would not be a shortage of rice due to the prevailing drought because the country had a rice surplus from last year. "Other crops and chena cultivation in the Anuradhapura district have been affected and drought relief has been distributed among the farmers", he said adding that the department's prime concern was to supply quality seed paddy for the forthcoming yala season." We have enough seed paddy and plans for the 2004/2005 maha season are also being finalised. Due to severe water shortage the farmers did not get the last water issue in February", he said. Contrary to the SLRC findings Lalani Imbulana, Deputy Director, Department of Irrigation said that there was no effective water storage in major irrigation tanks - Nachchaduwa, Mahakanadarawa and Huruluwewa tanks and Nuwara and Tissa Wewa - the major reservoirs in Anuradhapura. "In Kurunegala district, the Bathalagoda and Ridhi Ela, major irrigation tanks dried up", confirmed. She proposed the construction of larger water storage reservoirs,that are capable of storing large amount of water. According to Imbulana, the prevailing water shortage could be minimised if the authorities constructed the proposed project at Moragahakanda in Pollonnaruwa, which has the potential of providing water to the Pollonnaruwa and Anuradhapura districts. According to H. Samaratunage, Director Field Crop research and Development Institute, Mahailluppallama, 50 percent of other crop cultivations, including green gram, black gram, cowpea, soybean, maize sorghum and sesame have been completely destroyed due to the drought. Jayanthi Bullumulla, Kurunegala district Divisional Secretary told the 'Sunday Observer' that 80 per cent of paddy cultivation had been destroyed and predicted a poor maha yield. Animal husbandry, poultry and coconut cultivation have also been affected by the drought. Water bowsers - a problem "Of the 30 divisions, 10 are facing a sever water crisis and drinking water is the biggest problem. We hired water bowsers but finding water bowsers is also a problem" she said pointing out that most of the 2400 irrigation tanks in Kurunegala have run dry. Some tanks have a little water of water she said adding that villagers do not have other options. Some farmers depend on agri- wells", she added. With the assistance of the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) and the World Food Organisation (WFO) the Department of Social Services will distribute drought relief to affected families in the three districts. Each family will get a package containing - rice 35 kg, sugar 5 kg and dhal 3 kg valued at Rs. 1,407 for a month. In some parts of the district, government officials commenced distributing drought relief last week. According to Met Department sources there had been rains from last October and during the past 3 months no part of the country had received 50 percent of the expected rainfall. Rohitha Patiratna, National Co-ordinator Development of the SLRCS said that some parts of the Matale, Monaragala, Gampaha, Jaffna, Kilinochchi, Hambantota and Ratnapura districts were also suffer from drought. "Most people, who mainly depend on agriculture in these areas have not been able to earn any income for the past three months. Especially, farmers in the Anuradhapura district cultivate only in the Maha season and until the next Maha they will not have any means to earn. They have to wait till next October to start their cultivation. Some, who depend on renting out agricultural equipment are also facing hard times", he said. |
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