46 http://www.earthislandjournal.org
PHOTO^ LAKSHMAN^ NADARAJAto 33 percent during the same period
in 2018. The low rainfall followed by
another long spell of dry weather has
impacted drinking water access as well
as the agricultural livelihoods of more
than 600,000 people in the country.
Nandasiri, another farmer from
Bakmeegama, stands in front of his
small brick house with a red terra
cotta roof, just down the road from
Udayanthi. He is back from Colombo
for a short time to visit his family, and
tells a similar story: “My wife, my
daughter, and I lived together in this
house. I am a farmer. I own one acre
of paddy land, but because it did not
rain, I have not cultivated for the last
two years.”
Sri Lankan agriculture revolves
around two seasons, Maha (major),
which runs from September through
March, and Ya l a (minor), from May to
August. These seasons coincide with
the two monsoons that travel across
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bringing rain to the east and north
during Maha, and to the west and
southwest during Ya l a. Dry zone farmers
depend on water collected during these
monsoons to grow rice, the nation’s
staple food that is cultivated across
some 700,000 hectares of farmland,
as well as commercial crops like tea,
rubber, and coconuts.
In recent years, however, both
agricultural seasons have produced
diminished or no harvests due to
un reliable rainfall. For farmers who
are still working the land, the watershortage means that where they used to
harvest 70 bags of rice from one acre
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just 30.
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just the harvests. For many households,
drinking water comes from deep wells
and rivers. In Trincomalee district,
fewer than half the households have
access to tap water. Nandasiri’s family,
for example, has no pump in their
house. People without a well have to
walk long distances, sometimes even tothe next village, to get clean water.
With rising temperatures and
extended periods without rain, the
wells dry up and the water turns
muddy. The health impacts of drinking
unclean water are visible in the red
and yellow eyes of the people, a sign of
kidney disease, which is more and more
common. Poverty exacerbates these
and other health issues. In Nandasiri’s
family, medical expenses pose a huge
challenge: “My daughter is not well
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a brain-related illness]. I migrated to
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site, and I use that money for my
daughter’s medicine and clinic visits,
but we do not have enough to live day
by day.”
He’s not alone. Farmers struggling
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the nation’s 26-year civil war that
ended in 2009 have been leaving their
homes in search of higher incomes for
years. Now, confronted by alternating
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worse with progressive climate change,
even more are leaving their homes in
search of secure livelihoods. They are
moving across districts, across prov-
inces, and even across international
borders.
“What climate change means for
the people of Sri Lanka is that their
life has been disturbed,” says Anura
Dissanayake, who was secretary to
the Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Mahaweli
Development and Environment at
the time of the interview, prior to the
country’s presidential election in late- “We do not see it because the
roads and schools are all there, but
people are moving away.”
A
CROSS THE WORLD, deteriorat-
ing environmental conditions
caused by global warming are forcing
a rising number of people to abandonIn recent years, the country’s two agricultural seasons have produced diminished or no
harvests due to unreliable rainfall.