Worst drought-hit Sri Lanka’s north not given drinking water

Latest official figures from Sri Lanka reveal that authorities have failed to provide drinking water to the country’s worst drought hit northern region for over three months.

Only two divisional secretariat areas have been supplied with water so far. 

The number affected by the dry weather in the north is 115,542 according to the drought situation report released by the Disaster Management Centre at 6 pm on 28 July. It is nearly half the drought affected in the whole island.

While authorities have distributed drinking water to all the other drought ridden districts with 101,127 people, only Welioya and Puthukudiyiruppu in the northern region have received water.

The total number of drought hit people in the island by 28 July was 216,669.

© JDS

left

Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka

  • JDS is the Sri Lankan partner organization of international media rights group, Reporters Without Borders (RSF). The launching of this website was made possible by the EU’s European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR), of which Reporters Without Borders is a beneficiary.