Welcome showers which fell on most parts of the North Central Province and Mannar, Vavuniya and batticaloa Districts during the weekend after eight months were greeted by the people of the area who grappled with a severe drought which caused the destruction of crops and livestock.

The rains which commenced on last Friday in the North Central Province continued up to yesterday morning. The villagers of several areas were seen in celebrating the event.

Mihintale in Anuradhapura District is the area that received the highest rainfall during the weekend.   

In Polonnaruwa seven divisional secretariat areas were severely affected by the drought which included 183,141 individuals of 54,828 families as reported by the disaster management unit.

Despite the onset of rains the provision of drinking water to the residents continues since finding clean water is still a problem in those areas, the disaster management unit stated further. (K.G. Karunarathne and Romesh Madhusahanka)