8/17/2014

nation.lk ::: - Will this drought be prolonged?

Archives

Contact Us

Sunday, 17th August 2014

Sunday Print Edition

Today, Colombo, Sri Lanka

Partly Cloudy

The Gazette | Colombo Stock Exchange

Wind: 4.83 km/h

Currency Converter

28C
Grade 5 scholarship hopefuls try luck today: The grade 5 Scholarship examination w ill be held today. A

HOME

SUNDAY NATION

UNDO

BREAKING NEWS

Home

DAILY NATION

TOP STORY

News Features

ISSUES

NEWS

VIEWPOINT

NEWS FEATURES
EDITORIAL

POLITICS

INTERVIEW

SPORTS

ASTROLOGY

BUSINESS

HEALTH

FINE

LITERATURE

FREE

LETTERS

News Features

JEANS

CARTOON

COLUMNS

LIFESTYLE

WORLD

LENS

ELECTION RESULTS

CHOGM

The Nation
Like You like this.

Will this drought be prolonged?

You and 4,438 others like The Nation.

By Dhanesh Wisumperuma

Sunday, 17 August 2014 00:00

Rate this story

font size

Print

Email

(0 votes)

0
Facebook social plugin

NEWS LINK
Proposed waste disposal project not ecofriendly

Health Ministry awaits post-mortem report

Grade 5 scholarship hopefuls try luck today
0

Defense Seminar commences tomorrow

Grieved daughter files plaint over moms death

Like

Dubious OIUCM operating discretely in Sri

Lanka
GMOA demands screening of healthcare
specialists

The people of the Dry Zone of the country are suffering from a severe water shortage due to the

UPFA MPs hospitalized and discharged

prolonged drought. According to the statistics available on Disaster Management Centre, 1,620,602

No Ebola threat for Lankans in West Africa SLBFE

persons of 468,329 families living in 13 districts are affected from the drought and its impacts, as at

Lakvijaya adds 300MW more to main grid soon

August 11. The most affected areas of the country are agricultural area which is serious as shown from

Court halts deportation of asylum seekers

the news reports.

23 SL fishermen detained in Andhra Pradesh

Most of the wewas or tanks are almost dry and people used to dig for nelum roots which they can sell

The truth about liposuction and its dangers

and earn some living a usual act during severe droughts. The remaining water of these tanks could

Govt again shows Pillays bias

hardly be used for drinking purposes. People wait hours for the bowser water which is used for the

SLBFE to evacuate Lankans in Liberia

drinking purposes. It is said that the water provided is not sufficient. Some walk or cycle for kilometers to
bring a pot of water for their needs. Government drought relief is being provided to the people. It seems

CEA ignored Rathupaswala water

contamination COPE

those droughts affected of Uva Province are luckier than others they will receive aid from the

617 candidates enter the fray

government as well as the opposition parties!

2013 A/L Economics paper imported from

London

To those who are living in the Wet Zone or an area where 24 hour pipe-borne water supply is available,
this type of water shortage is mostly far from their understanding. However, to realize the situation, they
just have to ask some residents of Sri Jayewardenapura Kotte and surrounding areas about the
panicking situation resulted from the 36-hour long suspension of water supply during the first few days

COPE reveals CAA crackdown on bottled water

brands as cosmetic
Russia to tax sugary drinks - To make the
nation healthier

of this month. This water-cut which occurred due to a replacement of a water pipe near Battaramulla, but
it was extended due to the inability to complete the task in time. The water-cut lasted for about 72 hours
and people were suffering from a situation which we can dub as an urban water stress. People went

Critical Point

searching for the remaining few wells in this suburban area to collect water for their day-to-day work,

Be careful on iron deficiency

while the demand for bottled drinking water rose rapidly in the boutiques. The authorities provided

Infants born of mothers with iron deficiency (16

percent of pregnant women) often have low birth
weight and face a READ MORE

bowser water to some of the areas. There were near-conflict situations at some few wells where people
were awaiting in queues for a gallon or a bucket of water. The practically abandoned public wells or pinlindas were used in many areas.
That was the situation due to just a three-day long water shortage. Unfortunately, most of these people
couldnt realize that a similar situation occurs in most parts of the country for three-four months in some
of the years the periodical drought of the year.

http://www.nation.lk/edition/news-features/item/32404-will-this-drought-be-prolonged?.html

May 31, 2014 23:06

Critical Point

Pak-China corridor will be a game

changer in the region
Prime Minister of Pakistan Muhammad Nawaz
Sharif inaugurated the two 660 MW coal fired
projects, having total capacity of 1320 mega

1/3

8/17/2014

nation.lk ::: - Will this drought be prolonged?

READ MORE

Delayed response?
Let us look back at the drought of the Dry Zone. The Maha season of 2013/2014 was unsuccessful and
due to the failure of the north-east monsoon rains of 2013/2014. It was obvious that the Yala 2014 was
going to be a failure in area other than irrigated from major irrigation schemes that bring water from the

May 30, 2014 21:09

Critical Point

Why SL failed in 80% of pictorial

warning

but the water was too little and was too late for the cultivation of paddy in some areas.

We are thoroughly UNHAPPY about the NEW

percentage AS this is what the tobacco company
wanted. EXPERIENCES FROM OTHER
COUNTRIES READ MORE

The reaction of the government was to provide drought relief. The government has announced that

May 12, 2014 19:56

Wet Zone. We saw protest campaigns for water staged by farmers in some areas of the need of water

huge amount of money has been released for drought relief in the affected area. There are complaints
of that this aid reaches the need somewhat delayed. Since the situation was obvious at the beginning of
the year, the government should have had better preparations. Some such actions were there such as
the promotion of rice imports, to control the price of rice due to the lack of sufficient harvest of paddy.
Failure of rains, droughts, water shortages and lack of proper responses could make societies impatient
and provoke unrest. There are examples for such situations which eventually had led to collapse of

Critical Point

Walla patta a potential cash crop

From Sri Lanka, questions about w ars
Tam il Eelam returns to Tam il Nadu, India
WikiLeaks: LTTE Stored Weapons At Hospitals
ICRC To US Mission To UN
WikiLeaks: Disappearances Not Under Order
From Central Authorities ICRC To US Mission
To UN

regimes and governments. The failure of rains in mid 1970s in Sri Lanka seems to have affected to
some extent for the downfall of the incumbent government in 1977.
Future rains
The next important issue will be the forthcoming inter-monsoon and monsoon rains will those be able
to bring a rainfall sufficient to compensate this years drought. There was a prediction that the next
monsoon will be a failure, based on the increased activity of El-Nino. However, the chance of an El-Nino
has decreased by early this month. The Department of Meteorology this week predicted a continued
rainfall that could end the impact of drought in mid-September, with the commencement of the intermonsoon.
That is based on modern science. There was an age old system of weather predictions used by our
villagers. They used various natural indicators like flowering and fruiting of trees and animal behavior to
predict whether there will be a heavy rainfall or a drought in the forthcoming rainy season. These are
quite important for the farmers who entirely depend on local rains to feed village level tank for their
agriculture. Such areas are found in many parts of the country where large irrigation schemes that divert
from long distances are not available.
What do such traditional indicators or observations say of the next rainy season? The Green Movement
of Sri Lanka is at present conducting a study on these indicators of long-term weather predictions.
According to the data collected for this year, there is a high possibility for the next rainy season to bring
a good rainfall. The high abundance of wood apple (divul Limoniaacidissima) fruits in large numbers
along many parts of the dry zone is such an indicator of successful rainy season. Another indicator of a
good rainfall is the high abundance of beal fruit (beli Aeglemarmelos) which is also reported from most
of the areas. The strong dry winds called yalhulanga - the dry winds that reach the Dry Zone during the
Yala season - is another sign of a forthcoming rainy season. Reports from many parts of the Dry Zone
say that these winds were strong and dry. All these predict that the forthcoming rainy season will bring a
good amount of rain.
It seems that the forthcoming rainy season will be a test for the success of these traditional knowledge
based indicators. The present study of the Green Movement focuses this aspect whether the present
global environmental changes including climate change have had an impact these natural processes.
Such changes in phenology of plants and animals have been recorded from other parts of the world. In
such a situation, our traditional indicator based long-term weather predictions could become
unsuccessful and that could result in further abandonment of the use of this knowledge. In other words,
the indicators should be adapted with the current changes, as the knowledge is a dynamic system.
If these indicators are successful, use of these could be revitalized and introduced to the younger
generations where the use of those is practical. This knowledge base has many possible remedies for
present global environmental issues.
Read 45 times
News Features

More in this category:

What is left of the left movement in Sri Lanka

Between course-correction and

regime-change

http://www.nation.lk/edition/news-features/item/32404-will-this-drought-be-prolonged?.html

2/3

8/17/2014

nation.lk ::: - Will this drought be prolonged?

WHAT'S THIS?

AROUND THE WEB

ALSO ON THE NATION NEWSPAPER

The 3-Step Sugar Detox Is My True Story

Of Victory Over The People's Chemist

nation.lk ::: - Egypt's media applaud

Israel's Gaza offensive 1 comment

0 Comments

The Nation Newspaper

Login

Sort by Newest

Share

Favorite

Start the discussion

Be the first to comment.

Subscribe

Add Disqus to your site

back to top

Home

Sunday Nation

Daily Nation

News

News Features

Politics

Sports

Business

Fine

Free

Jeans

Columns

World

Lens

Undo

Copyrights protected: All the content on this w ebsite is copyright protected and can be reproduced only by giving the due courtesy to w w w .nation.lk' Copyright 2011 Rivira Media
Corporation Ltd., 742, Maradana Road,Colombo 10, Sri Lanka. Web Solution By Mithila Kumara | All rights reserved.

http://www.nation.lk/edition/news-features/item/32404-will-this-drought-be-prolonged?.html

3/3