Arundathie Abeysinghe

Climatologists do not expect significant rainfall until May, and already last month the weather was very dry due to the impact of El Niño in the Asia-Pacific region in late 2023. Officials have urged the population to use water sparingly.

This is what a study covering the period 1990-2022 published by The Lancet indicates. Sri Lanka ranks second worse after India, but the latter shows an improvement in recent years. The Ministry of Health is considering "food baskets" for those suffering from moderate acute malnutrition (MAM).

Centred on oil, the visit by Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian from 19 to 21 February anticipates that of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi at the end of the year. The minister and his Sri Lankan hosts also discussed nanotechnology, biotechnology, and pharmaceuticals, as well as the two countries’ “tea for oil” barter deal.

The initiative was promoted by the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Office to attract visitors from Buddhist communities. The President and Foreign Minister also announced a twinning programme between the country's temples and those in the South East Asian region.

The 18% increase brings families to their knees, costs have become 'unsustainable and unaffordable'. Stationery imports also down, historic bookshops lay off staff. Book lists are halved, parents looking for discounts and forced to cut back on school supplies. The price of paper has risen by 300%.

The environmentalists' denounce the destruction of the Palaviya area destroyed due to the negligence (and connivance) of the ruling class over the past 20 years. An environmental excellence, with an outstanding variety of flora and fauna. At least 4,000 hectares of plantation have been lost since 2010. Also a ring of false documents behind the allocation of (protected) land for cultivation.

A survey by the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) among Japanese firms that operate in the region highlights Sri Lanka’s low wages, inadequate to cover workers’ housing costs. Some 60 per cent of Japanese companies invested in the country because of its cheap labour. Meanwhile, local skilled workers continue to leave.

It is one of the countries with the highest number of elephant deaths in the world: the subspecies inhabiting the island numbers less than 7,000. One of the main causes is habitat reduction, compounded by farmers' illegal electrified nets that in 2023 alone killed 50 elephants. Now the power company has begun to sue those who divert the voltage into these barriers.

Traffic has grown by 80% in a few weeks, after many companies decided to abandon the Suez Canal route because of Houthi attacks, for the one circumnavigating Africa. But for Sri Lanka it risks being only a short-term gain. The political crux of Colombo's participation in the Red Sea mission.

The police are making thousands of indiscriminate arrests. The children are abandoned without care and are often fed by neighbours living in poverty. The Sri Lankan Bar Association is trying to lead an action to investigate how the police are investigating.

A survey by the Department of Census and Statistics reports that many families have had to look for a second job as a survival strategy, while most found themselves with a smaller monthly income and few alternatives. Government officials are trying to implement the provisions imposed by the International Monetary Fund.

51% of the crops affected in a country that is among the world's leading exporters. According to Forbes&Walker, 'in the most severely affected areas, rubber production has plummeted by up to 30%'. In the absence of a proper treatment protocol, the only hypothesised solution is drones spraying fungicides on plant crowns. But the growers' association also calls for biological methods that prevent the disease.