(COLOMBO, LANKAPUVATH) – President Maithripala Sirisena has given instructions to the officials to expedite the Wew Gam Pubuduwa(awaking of rural tanks and villages) program to uplift the livelihoods of the agricultural community living in seven districts including Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Puttalam, Kurunegala, Vavuniya, Trincomalee, and Manner.
The Wewgam Pubuduwa program is being implemented on the concept of President Maithripala Sirisena under the financial assistance provided by both the International Green Climate Fund (Rs.3682million) and the Sri Lankan government (Rs.1250million).
These funds were granted to Sri Lanka as a request made by President Maithripala Sirisena to implement the projects targeting the impacts of climate change from the Green Climate Fund in accordance with the Paris Agreement on Climate Change signed by Sri Lanka on April 2016.
The project is being implemented based on the three river basins of Malwathu oya, Mee oya and Yan oya covering Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Puttalam, Kurunegala, Vavuniya, Trincomalee, and Manner districts.
Accordingly, 325 rural tanks and 75 rural ecosystems will be developed while cultivating 9750 hectares of paddy lands based on 325 tanks under the climate compact agriculture. Meanwhile, steps will be taken to provide agricultural advises to 520000 farmers on climate changes on agriculture and directing around 16,677 farmer women under the climate compact agriculture.
The renovation work on 140 tanks have already been completed and they will be commissioned to the people at the end of August.
In parallel to this event, a project will be implemented to provide clean drinking water facility for the people living in villages connected to those tanks under the financial assistance of Rs.1732 million by the International Green Climate Fund and Rs.1069 million by the Sri Lankan government.
Under this program, 35 rural community water supply projects and 4000 rainwater harvesting projects will be implemented.
