Over 500,000 still affected by Sri Lanka drought

Colombo, April 19 (IANS) Over 500,000 people still remain affected by the drought in 10 districts of Sri Lanka, according to a report released by the Sri Lankan Disaster Management Centre (DMC) on Thursday.

The DMC said the 10 districts located in the northern, northwestern and eastern provinces of Sri Lanka had been affected. 

The Puttalam district in the northwestern province is the worst-affected with 216,670 people suffering from the drought, Xinhua news agency reported.

DMC spokesman Pradeep Kodippili said people had been affected in terms of scarcity of drinking water and crop failures. However, he said the southern, central and western parts of Sri Lanka were experiencing rain.