People across the Northern, North Central, Eastern and Uva provinces are facing severe hardship under the prevailing dry weather, with residents saying the lack of water has made it increasingly difficult to carry on farming, Ada Derana reported on Tuesday.
Paddy cultivation in the Polonnaruwa district has begun to suffer significant damage from the drought conditions. Farmers in the Anuradhapura district say their crops have been severely damaged by the shortage of water.
The Department of Meteorology has indicated that significant rainfall is not expected in the affected areas before October and November — leaving cultivators in the dry zone facing a further two to three months without meaningful relief.
Water trucked to national parks
Wildlife authorities have begun distributing water to animals in national parks by bowser because of the dry weather, NewsFirst reported.
Minister of Wildlife Dr. Dammika Patabendi said water is being supplied to the Yala, Wilpattu, Kumana and Bundala national parks. Solar-powered systems are also being used to deliver water inside Yala.
The operation extends an emergency measure that began at Wilpattu at the end of July, when the main tanks in the park’s eastern zone — Maradankaduwa, Parcibendiwewa and Kukulkatuwa — ran dry and officers started pumping bowser water into concrete ponds.
A widening split between wet and dry zones
The stress in the dry zone has developed alongside an unusually wet fortnight in the southwest, where sustained rain pushed reservoirs to the edge of spilling this week.
The Department of Meteorology described that divide on Sunday, when meteorologist Srimal Herath said El Niño conditions could persist until the Northeast Monsoon season next year and that the greater effect would fall on areas already experiencing dry weather rather than on the rain-soaked southwest.
Neither report gave figures for the extent of crop damage, the number of farming families affected, or whether compensation is being considered.
