Drought debilitates 14 districts

The prevailing drought has affected a total of 712,997 people from 179,184 families belonging to 14 districts, the Disaster Management Centre announced yesterday.

Accordingly, the drought has affected people living in the Trincomalee, Kalutara, Gampaha, Hambantota, Monaragala, Anuradhapura, Jaffna, Mullaitivu, Kilinochchi, Vavuniya, Ratnapura, Kegalle, Kurunegala, Puttalam and Kandy districts. 

Those people are suffering from a severe drinking water shortage, but according to the Disaster Management Centre, the Government has already deployed water bowsers and tanks to distribute drinking water in those areas. 

Meanwhile, the Indonesian Government has conveyed the possibility of it supplying food and other humanitarian aid in view of the dry weather and possible upcoming food crisis.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo said on Tuesday that Indonesia would assist Sri Lanka as a close friend at any time when it faced a difficult situation.  

He said Indonesia had already sent 5,000 MT of rice to overcome the current rice shortage due to the loss of crops from the 2016/17 Maha cultivation season.  (CG).