Four reservoirs in the Kantale and Thambalagamuwa areas of Trincomalee that once held water year-round have almost completely dried up, and villagers are now rationing what little is left for animals rather than for themselves, NewsFirst reported from the district on Wednesday.
Peramadu Wewa, Nika Wewa, Samagi Wewa and 91 Wewa — all described as lifelines for the surrounding villages — now lie empty. Only two reservoirs in the area retain a small quantity of water.
“We are carefully protecting the little water left in Nika Wewa without disturbing it, so that animals can drink from it,” one resident told the broadcaster.
Eighty per cent of a village’s paddy gone
In Ulpathwewa, a village of more than 56 families, a resident said there is now not enough water for a cow to drink, let alone for households. “After Kantale Wewa dried up, we don’t even have water for ourselves,” the resident said. “Nearly 80 per cent of our paddy cultivation has been destroyed. Elephants are breaking through fences and entering the village. When you look inside homes today, some families don’t even have enough to prepare a simple meal.”
Some farmers have given up on the harvest entirely and opened their fields to let cattle graze on the standing crop. “The entire crop has failed. We did not receive enough irrigation water, and there was no rainfall either,” one told NewsFirst.
Livestock farmers described a sharp fall in output: daily milk collection has dropped from around 20 litres to five, with cattle short of both water and feed. Freshwater fishing has also slowed sharply, removing another source of household income.
The report places the wider damage at more than 8,000 acres of paddy across Monaragala, Polonnaruwa, Hambantota, Anuradhapura and Ampara, with Monaragala worst affected — figures consistent with the government’s own count. Drinking water is being supplied to 37,890 people in Monaragala and 28,523 in Batticaloa.
Compensation gets a start date
Agricultural and Agrarian Insurance Board Chairman Premasiri Jasinghearachchi said compensation payments for drought-damaged farmland will begin next Friday — the first time a start date has been attached to the programme, which has been announced repeatedly since mid-August without one.
Farmers will receive Rs. 100,000 per hectare from the Rs. 3 billion the government has allocated. The board also itemised the crops covered for the first time: paddy, maize, big onion and potato.
NewsFirst did not date the payment more precisely than “next Friday”. Read from Wednesday 2 September, that is either 4 or 11 September; the board did not say which, and no other newsroom had carried the announcement at the time of writing.
