Govt. extends largesse to 10,000 destitute families in Hambantota District

By Ifham Nizam

Presidential Task Force Chairman Basil Rajapaksa had given the green light for the provision of drinking water and electricity free of charge to 10,000 destitute families in the Hambantota District, the Environment Ministry said.

Environment Minister Mahinda Amaraweera said that he had raised the matter at a recent meeting under the chairmanship of Basil Rajapaksa at Temple Trees.

“As far as I know, there are about 10,000 families in the Hambantota district alone without proper sanitary facilities. I pointed out that there were a large number of families all over the country who did not have access to pipe-borne water, and electricity. What was the reason? Basil Rajapaksa asked me. I told him that those people had no money. Accordingly, it was decided to launch a programme to provide free electricity, drinking water and proper toilet facilities to all those families before the Sinhala New Year this year.”

Amaraweera said that the government had decided to conduct another sand survey and a water related electronic survey on the rivers in the country.

“There are 103 rivers in our natural drainage system, fulfilling the drinking and agricultural water needs of the people. Among them, several major rivers meet the drinking water needs of the urban population.”

The Minister said that although well water was used for drinking in some areas, the vast majority of the urban population could not do so..

Citing examples, he said people living in and around Colombo were prohibited from using groundwater for drinking purposes as it was polluted.

The Geological Survey and Mines Bureau in 2019 conducted electronic surveys of water and sand.

“At present, sand mining in rivers has increased. Therefore, I have instructed the Geological Survey and Mines Bureau to commence fresh surveys immediately to find out the possible damage to those rivers”, Amaraweera said.

He said that if the river bottom was deepened too much due to excessive sand mining, seawater would begin to seep into the river. Then the public would have to face a serious drinking water problem.