It’s been 12 days since the rice farmers from Embilipitiya launched a Sathyagraha campaign demanding water for their rice fields.

The satyagraha is continuing as the demands of the farmers to release water from the Samanala Wewa to the Udawalawa Reservoir have not been met.

Farmers have stressed that they would not abandon their cause until water is provided to their rice fields.

Over 65,000 acres of rice fields in the Walawa Zone in the south of Sri Lanka will be destroyed due to the inability to irrigate those rice fields. 

Earlier this week, farmers from the neighboring Weli-Oya Zone decided to supply the Walawa Zone with water, however, the Deputy Director General of the Mahaweli Authority of Sri Lanka Engineer Nilantha Dhanapala told News 1st that the water released from the Weli-Oya is insufficient the irrigate the vast area of rice fields in the Walawa Zone.

Published Date: August 4, 2023