Shafaqna English– Sri Lanka is in the grip of a devastating El Niño-induced drought that has brought unprecedented hardship to its rural farming communities, with water sources drying up across the northern, eastern, and southern regions and rainfall deficits in key agricultural areas reaching an astonishing 85% to 100% below historical averages.
Farmer Pathmasena from Ampara district describes a dire new reality: his well, which served his family reliably for over 30 years, is now nearly empty, providing just enough water for his family’s most basic needs and his two cows, while his $60 monthly income from cowpea farming has vanished entirely, reducing him to casual labor.
The crisis has forced the government to mobilize emergency water tankers to serve tens of thousands of people, but distribution is deeply unequal—urban and roadside households receive supplies every few days, while remote village families endure waits of over three weeks.
In affected homes, people have adopted desperate routines: digging into dry well beds to collect trickles of seepage water, queuing at tube wells for hours, and carefully rationing every drop for drinking, cooking, washing, and livestock.
The drought has also shattered other livelihoods, including Pathmasena’s son’s poultry farm, which succumbed to the extreme heat and water shortages. With the nation’s tanks and reservoirs reduced to just 10% of their normal water levels, and with El Niño expected to strengthen further, Sri Lanka faces a spiraling humanitarian crisis that is eroding food security, deepening rural poverty, and leaving thousands of families uncertain of their next meal.
Source: Reuters