Anuradhapura people undergo severe water shortage

Anuradhapura Government Agent R.M. Wanninayake said people must use drinking water economically as lack of water has become a national issue now.

He appealed to the public not to use pipe-borne water and other water sources for gardening, watering flower plants, and washing vehicles at this critical junction.

The drought has severely affected over three lakhs of people in the Anuradhapura district.

Police stations, hospitals, sacred places, schools and other public agencies in the district receive water mainly from the Nuwarawewa, Tissawewa and Thuruwila tanks.

Nuwarawewa supplies 13,500 cubic meters of purified water and, Thuruwila 19,000 and Tisawewa 6,000. The tanks supply water for the yala cultivation as well. The water levels in major tanks are dwindling rapidly due to the drought, Wanninayake said.

The water being sent from the Nuwarawewa and other major tanks through Kalawewa to the relevant destinations for cultivating and drinking was taken stealthily by some parties, sources said.

Police officers will be deployed to protect water canals that provide water to Anuradhapura from Kalawewa, he said. The Mahaweli Authority and the Mahaweli Water Management Committee have been requested to release 500 a.f Mahaweli water to Nuwarawewa though Kalawewa and Nachchaduwa for drinking purposes.

Wanninayake said divisional secretaries were instructed to provide the affected families with 20,000 packets of dry food starting from this week. 

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