The Minister responding to some questions raised in a special statement made by DNA National List MP Anura Kumara Dissanayake said drinking water were being distributed free of charge using bowsers at district level. The Disaster Management Ministry had identified this situation early, and allocated funds to Divisional Secretariats and Pradeshiya Sabhas. “The district secretaries have been instructed to bear the costs incurred by distributing water by bowsers or to pay for the water if the need arises. The disaster situation is not something we could skip, we could only mitigate the situation. For that purpose funds had been allocated by passing a special cabinet paper presented by the President.

The government had made arrangements to distribute a bag of dry rations worth of Rs 6,000 among each of the affected families. A sum of Rs 1335 million had been allotted to work on removing silt collected in reservoirs in the dry zone. The government has made orders to purchase 200 new bowsers and 200,000 cans of water to help the affected.”

In view of possible drought situations in the future, the government had taken action to launch several irrigation schemes. Work of Kalu ganga and Gin Ganga irrigation projects were in progress as feasibility studies pertaining to them were being completed, Minister Amaraweera said. (Special Reporter/HC)