News
Govt. brings permanent solution to perennial potable water shortage facing people of North

As a permanent solution to the drinking water problem faced by the people in the North for many years, a project to obtain potable water from seawater is scheduled to be opened today by Prime Minister, Mahinda Rajapaksa.
Minister of Water Supply, Vasudeva Nanayakkara said, “Our fellow people living in the North have been facing severe hardships for years due to the lack of proper drinking water. Since previous methods which were planned and implemented for this purpose were not succeeded, with the intention of providing a relief to the people in the North even by incurring a huge cost, the National Water Supply and Drainage Board has taken steps to commence this massive project, the Jaffna-Kilinochchi Water Supply Project”.
The Minister pointed out that the drinking water problem of the Jaffna Peninsula will be solved by more than 50% and this will benefit about 300,000 families only in the first phase.
Under the initial phase of this project, schemes are being implemented as Nagadeepa Seawater Treatment Plant, Thalaiyadi Seawater Treatment Plant and Jaffna Town Distribution System.
The Nagadeepa Drinking Water Treatment Plant will provide safe drinking water through pipelines to 6,000 beneficiaries belonging to 1500 households in the Nagadeepa, Iluvativu and Analathivu islands. The cost for this is Rs. 187 million. The second phase of this project that is, laying of 25 Kilometer length pipeline system for transmitting water to the islands of Nagadeepa, Iluwathivu and Analathivu from the Nagadeepa Treatment System, will also commence parallel. The estimated cost for this is Rs. 34 million.
Thalaiyadi Seawater Treatment Plant which is being constructed at a huge cost of about Rs. 19,000 million is the largest scheme under this project. By this, arrangements will be made to provide safe drinking water facilities through pipelines to a population of about 60,000 living in 12,000 households. Thalaiyadi Water Purification System will also be constructed parallel to this which provides pipe borne water for the Jaffna City Limits and suburbs and the cost of the project is Rs. 3,160 million. It has been able to provide safe piped water facilities to a population of about 60,000 people belonging to 28,000 families. The length of this system is 271 kilometers.
This Project is being carried out by the National Water Supply and Drainage Board of the Ministry of water Supply under the financial assistance of the Asian Development Bank and the Government of Sri Lanka.
News
Stay on course and don’t go back to the past – Dr Indrajit Coomaraswamy

Former Governor of the Central Bank delivering the keynote address at a high profile Webinar hosted by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka today (24) said that Sri Lanka must implement the structural reforms proposed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) without relaxing like in the past or else we will be in a deeper economic mess.
The webinar was titled ‘What is next for Sri Lanka in the wake of the IMF programme’
News
Sustainable economic development goals cannot be achieved unless attention is paid to mitigating climate change – Sagala Ratnayake

President’s Senior Adviser on National Security and Chief of Presidential Staff Sagala Ratnayake said sustainable economic development goals cannot be accomplished without taking steps to mitigate climate change.
He said this while participating in the 10,000 sapling planting program organized by the LEO Youth Vision 2048 Club and the LEO Club at the Royal College, Colombo on Thursday (23rd).
This program was organized in view of President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s birthday, which is today (24), and the required plants were distributed to the main schools of the Colombo District.
News
SF claims thousands of police and military personnel leaving

By Saman Indrajith
Thousands of police and military personnel had left the services recently as they did not want to carry out illegal orders, Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka told Parliament yesterday. According to the war-winning army commander 200 policemen have resigned during the past two months and 25,000 soldiers have left the army during the last two years.
“We urged the law enforcement and military officials not to follow illegal orders. We will reinstate them with back pay,” he said.
Fonseka also urged the President and the government MPs not to take people for fools.
“Sri Lanka owes 55 billion dollars to the world. Ranil’s plan is to borrow another seven billion during the next four years. So, in four years we will owe 62 billion to the world.
Ranil and his ministers ask us what the alternative to borrowing is. These are the people who destroyed the economy and society. They must leave. Then, we will find an alternative and develop the country,” he said, adding that the IMF loans had made crises in other nations worse.
“Ranil says that by 2025, we will have a budget surplus as in Japan, Germany and South Korea. These countries are economic power houses, and this comparison is ludicrous.”
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