Families in Selvakanda hit by plethora of problems

COLOMBO (News1st): The Gammadda team, on its door-to-door campaign came across 700 families that live in five-foot-four line houses in the Selvakanda area in the Matara District. Each family has about five or six members. The woes of these people are worsened further due to the lack of clean drinking water. Families have to allocate a portion of their income to purchase water. More than 800 students of the Alapaladeniya Secondary School in the Matara District are helpless as education officers have abandoned their institution. The major problem faced by people in the area is the lack of sanitary facilities. Residents of Nagawila in Puttalam who have been hit by drinking water problems point out that the only wewa in the area has not been refurbished for almost a century. Around 300 acres of farmlands in the area have been abandoned due to the lack of water. A drinking water project that had begun in the area is now a white elephant. A tank constructed under the project is filled with holes. Water that is filled using bowser, flows out from the tank, washing away the dreams of the people as well. Around 136 families in the Kristhukulam village in Vavuniya are facing a similar issue. The only wewa in the area is filled with silt and cannot be used for their activities. Many villagers have been hit by kidney-related ailments for consuming water that is unfit for consumption.