More than 400,000 people in the Puttalam district are facing severe hardships with no drinking water due to the prolonged drought. They said they had not yet received any relief under the government’s relief programmes for the drought stricken areas. About 200 tanks and minor irrigation canals that provided drinking water and irrigation facilities have run dry. Meanwhile the crop failure has created a scarcity of food compelling the villagers even to eat lotus yams collected from the tanks that have run dry. Pix by Hiran Priyankara Jayasinghe