Almost 67% of population lacks sustainable access to safe drinking water

By Poojathmi Rivithma 

Colombo ,August 2 ( Daily Mirror) - Nearly 67 percent of the country's population is still without sustainable access to safe drinking water in Sri Lanka, Prof. P.P.A. Wasantha Athukorala of the Department of Economics & Statistics of the Peradeniya University said.

He told the Daily Mirror that the survey had been conducted using samples of 3,210 housing units covering the urban, rural and plantation areas in the 25 districts of the country.

Accordingly, the survey was conducted by the Department of Census and Statistics, the Water Supply and Estate Infrastructure Development Ministry and UNICEF on the quality of drinking water.

The results revealed that an estimated 3.5 million people are without safe  drinking water sources in Sri Lanka.

Hence, water purification supplies and support to improve water treatment systems in urban and rural areas has become a special need to the people.