Nearly one million people from 30,892 families have been affected by the prevailing drought and individuals and organisations were urged not to politicise the issue since it was a grave matter of humanitarian concern for the entire country, military and relief officials said.
The Disaster Management Centre (DMC) along with other relief agencies have taken steps to provide drinking water to those affected in coordination with the District and Divisional Secretariats and the President’s office has released the funds towards this end, State Minister for Defence, Premitha Bandara Tennakoon said.
The dry spell that is being experienced in the country at present is a seasonal phenomenon and nobody should attempt to take political mileage from it, Tennakoon told the media this week.
“The country is going through a dry spell due to the seasonal changes in weather and the situation will improve with monsoonal rains that are expected in the coming months.
“We have had extensive discussions with officials of State institutions including the Disaster Management Division, Irrigation Ministry, Power and Energy Ministry, Agriculture Ministry, Department of Agrarian Development, Irrigation Department, Mahaweli Authority, Electricity Board, Public Utilities Commission, Meteorology. Department, DMC, National Building Research Organisation and the Irrigation Department over the issue and how collective measures can be taken to deal with this situation to provide relief to those affected,” Tennakoon said.
He also stressed the need for efficient water management to overcome the water shortage for irrigation purposes.
The State Minister said that he will hold monthly meetings with the media to share information collected from local and international meteorological sources and weather forecasts and how the authorities plan to face climatic emergencies in the future.
The most affected districts are Ratnapura, Trincomalee, Puttalam, Kurunegala, Jaffna, Mannar, Mullaitivu, Vavuniya, Badulla and Moneregala.
He said that 58 bush fires have so far been reported from several parts of the country and most of these fires have been created by accident or by design.
He said that laws should be updated to deal with such perpetrators to avert such incidents.
DMC officials said that the fires are caused mainly by poachers close to water holes that attract animals such as deer, wild boar and anteaters.
The worst affected areas are the Nuwara Eliya and Badulla districts, they said.
People apprehended for causing such disasters should be dealt firmly with the law since this is a practice that has been followed over many years, a senior DMC official said.
“The lack of facilities and technology to extinguish fires has led to challenges in controlling them. The dry weather in the region has also contributed to the problem, with people setting fire to forested areas becoming a severe issue.
The lack of advanced technology has limited efforts to control the fires with the help of the Security Forces and firefighting units,” he said.