Drought hits 19 Districts, no rain since December

More than 1.2 million people in 19 Districts had been affected since last December due to the dry weather across the country, the Disaster Management Centre (DMC) said today.

“A total of 1,242,140 individuals from 360,487 families in the 137 Divisional Secretariats Divisions in Trincomalee, Batticaloa, Ampara, Polonnaruwa, Anuradhapura, Kurunegala, Puttalam, Kilinochchi, Vavuniya, Mullaithivu, Jaffna, Mannar, Ratnapura, Moneragala, Badulla, Matale, Kandy, Gampaha and Hambantota were affected,” an official at the DMC said.

The official said the Kurunegala District in the North Western Province was the most affected District where 200,703 people had been affected.

He said steps were being taken to distribute drinking water for those areas.

Meanwhile, the Department of Meteorology forecasted that there was a high possibility of afternoon thunderstorms in the Eastern, Uva, Northern and North-Central Provinces.

It said rains could be expected in the Jaffna District and the Western coastal area during the morning as well.

“Fairly heavy falls about 75mm could also be expected at some places in the Eastern, Northern, North-Central and the Uva Provinces,” the Department said.(Darshana Sanjeewa)