Gammadda continues door-to-door campaign

COLOMBO (News1st): Three-wheelers that transport water instead of passengers are a common sight for the people in the Puhulyaya village in Ratnapura, the Gammadda team observed during its door-to-door campaign. While people in several parts of the country start their day with fresh ambitions, the people in this village ponder over the methods through which they can obtain water. Villagers who travel to the village of Komarika in a three-wheeler, quench their thirst with meagre amounts of water that they manage to collect. While the problems pertaining to the shortage of water persists, the woes of the people are worsened further due to their cultivation. This is because their crops are destroyed by peacocks and squirrels. Wells have been dug in several areas in the Irutumadu area in Mullaitivu. However, people have not been able to quench their thirst as the water that is found in some wells are unfit for consumption. Desperate to obtain water, the villagers of Irutumadu are forced to consume this water regardless of the health risks that they face. As a result, they suffer throughout their lives with kidney-related ailments. The people in this village told the Gammadda team that wild elephants claim at least 3 lives every year while also damaging between 10 to 12 houses in the area. Around 350 families in the Monarathenna village in Welikanda earn a living through agriculture. Despite cultivating crops across 450 acres of land, at least 40 acres are being destroyed by elephants that enter the village from the Somawathiya and Maduru Oya reserves. An electric fence erected about a kilometre from the village does not serve its purpose due to the absence of power. The request of these villagers is for an electric fence.