FARMERS IN DAMBULLA SAY NO WATER FOR CULTIVATION FOR 25 DAYS

Farmers in Dambulla had expressed concern that their crops would fail as paddy cultivations in the Canal 2 and Canal 4 areas irrigated by the Kandalama reservoir had not received any water for 25 days.

Representatives of farmer organizations said officials of the Mahaweli Authority had informed them that irrigation facilities would be provided only to 50 per cent of the paddy cultivation and that the farmers should depend on the upcoming monsoonal rains thereafter. Farmer organizations had warned that paddy cultivators who depended on irrigation facilities from the Kandalama reservoir would be in a predicament without means to settle cultivation loans and redeem their jewellery which they had pawned to meet the initial expenses for their paddy cultivation.

Meanwhile State Minister of Agriculture and Matale District Parliamentarian Wasantha Aluvihare said that he had not received any complaints in this regard from the farmer organizations, but he would take up the issue with the Director General of the Mahaweli Authority and request him to provide relief to the affected farmers.

However representatives of the Sri Sumangala Farmers’association said that they would launch a massive campaign in the Dambulla town with the participation other farmer organizations if water was not released to them within the next two days.