17 thousand families have been affected by floods

More than 17 thousand families have been affected by floods in five districts in the island.

Director of the Disaster Relief Service N.D. Hettiarachchi said the affected persons in numbers were nearly 80,000. The Gampaha district was affected severely by floods. 45 thousand people have been influenced by under water in divisional secretariat areas of Dompe, Biyagama, Attanagalla, Kelaniya, Ja-ela, Minuwangoda and Gampaha.

This has resulted the over flowing of Kelani Ganga and Attanagalu Oya. It is reported that more than 22 thousand people were displaced in Kalutara district. 18 thousand people were affected by floods in Palinda-Nuwara divisional secretariat division.

Mr. Hettiarachchi said that measures have been taken to provide cooked meals by boats for displaced in those areas. 4,500 persons have been affected in Bulathsinhala divisional secretariat divisions and 7,500 in the Galle district. More than five thousand people were affected in Rathnapura district due to flood situation. In the Matara district one hundred persons were affected by floods. Mr. Hettiarachchi further said that this situation would become worst due to the heavy rain experiencing in the country. The government has already allocated around 1.4 million rupees to accelerate the relief assistance for flood victims. In addition, the government has allocated One million rupees for Rathnapura, two hundred thousand rupees each for the Kalutara and Gampaha district as assistance. 50 thousand rupees has been released for the Galle district. The director of the National disaster relief service has advised all district divisional secretaries to take time action in this regard.