Clean drinking water for Puttalam district

Priyanka Kurugala

The Water Supply and Drainage Ministry plans to provide clean and purified water for the entire Puttalam district by 2015, Water Supply and Drainage Minister Dinesh Gunawardena said.

The minister was addressing a progress review meeting of water supply projects and community base water supply projects in the Puttalam district recently.

The ceremony was organised by Civil Aviation Minister Piyankara Jayaratne.

Gunawardena said one of the main aims of the Mahinda Chinthana is to provide clean water to all Sri Lankans. Funds will be provided by the government, Asian Development Bank and foreign donors, he said.

“The Water Supply and Drainage Ministry has paid attention to many problems in the Puttalam district,” he said.

“The ministry found that water sources are rare in the Puttalam district to activate community based water supply projects and sanitary projects. Electricity is also not available is some parts of the district to activate machinery to obtain purified water,” the minister said.

“The lack of facilities and equipment are the other problems in the area,” he said.

Gunawardena said the ministry has drawn plans to solve these problems. The Water Supply and Drainage Ministry and the National Water Supply and Drainage Board with the participation of the National Community Water Trust will implement a programme to solve the water problem in the Puttalam district, the minister said.