Farmers’ Organisations in the Kurunegala District say about 50,000 acres of paddy fields in the district irrigated with the water provided by Deduru Oya face destruction as Deduru Oya is drying up.
About 300,000 residents of the Kurunegala town get water from Deduru Oya for their daily needs.
Sixteen canals providing water to Deduru oya have now completely dried up. The Kurunegala and Puttalam Districts of the North Western Province undergo a severe water shortage and illegal sand excavating.
The latter destroy river banks and deforest the area led by regional politicians, Kurunegala District Farmers’ Organization Chairman S.M.Premaratne said speaking at a meeting of farmers held at the Bingiriya Youth Training Centre on April 3.
Illegal fragmentation of fertile coconut lands is carried out under political patronage and it has declined coconut harvests in the past two years considerably, Premaratne said.
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