Impact of drought condition on the ecosystem of the Mannar District, Sri Lanka- A Case Study

Abstract

Country\'s developmental process is mainly based on the developmental activity of the personal well being where the satisfaction level of the livelihood activity creates the nations\' developments. Sri Lanka has faced so many natural disasters by water, wind, fire etc. As being the sub tropical and tropical country, most of the territorial places are undergone with the drought condition which causes the imbalance nature of the living standard of the population. In Sri Lanka, most of the places in Northern and Eastern Provinces come under the dry zone sector. Among those, Mannar District is the identified location which has the remarkable deviation in its meteorological data. In this view, this study was focused on the drought conditions and its impacts on reservoirs, economical, living standard, social and biological conditions of the eco-system in Mannar District. Statistical reports were gathered from the Meteorological Department and from the Agricultural Department where the interview was carried out among the randomly selected population regarding the issues on the basis of their livelihood activities were analyzed carefully. The results revealed that the people suffer for the portable water during the Yala Season and the May to July were the identified months with higher disaster and the displacement of the people due to severe drought. According to the statistical data collected during the period between 2005 and 2009, land used for the cultivation and the farming was reduced a lot in the selected 5 Divisional Secretariat Division and the pattern varied with its yield. The Musali and Manthai-West DS Divisions were highly affected while comparing with the Naanaddan DS Division of the Mannar District. It was obvious that the 80% of the land was not utilized in the Yala Season due to the lack of water. The yield was below 10,000 Metric Ton except Naanaddan DS Division and also the land use pattern was below 2000 Hectare in most of the months. Although, the rainwater harvesting system such as rooftop harvesting tanks, small pond and tanks available in the study area, this should be promoted and rehabilitated for the future use and able to solve the water demand to some extent.