Over 200,000 people facing drinking water issue due to arid weather

Minister of Agriculture Mahinda Amaraweera says the prevailing arid weather has destroyed at least 39,000 acres of paddy land across the country thus far.

A comprehensive report on the paddy crop damages is expected to be released in the coming weeks, the lawmaker said further while addressing an event.

It is estimated that the damages to paddy cultivation will exceed 50,000 acres by the time the report is released, Minister Amaraweera added.

Minister Amaraweera, who attended a meeting of the Ministerial Consultative Committee on Agriculture last week, had assured that immediate steps would be taken to resolve the problems that have emerged in purchasing paddy from farmers.

As the Paddy Marketing Board (PMB) has not allocated enough money to purchase paddy, only a certain amount of paddy has been purchased with the funds received from the Treasury, the lawmaker had told the committee. In light of this situation, the farmers are not interested in selling paddy due to not getting the expected price, he had explained.

Meanwhile, the Disaster Management Centre (DMC) said at least 210,652 people from 60,943 families are now facing drinking water issues as a result of the prevailing drought.