Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2020-03-04

Providing of 150,000 Domestic Drinking Water Connections

- At present, the National Water Supply & Drainage Board (NWSDB) has provided 2.4 million water connections covering 41% of the population of Sri Lanka and the NWSDB provides generally 110,000 domestic drinking water connections annually. However, it has been difficult to provide the consumers of some areas with the domestic drinking water connections even when there is an excess of capacity, because of the need of additional pipe extensions to cover the areas/roads that have not been covered by the existing distribution network, need for the consumers to pay the initial connection fee of around Rs.20,000/- and the road reinstatement charges. As such, the proposal made by the Hon. Prime Minister in his capacity as the Minister of Urban Development, Water Supply and Housing Facilities, to launch an accelerated programme for providing 150,000 domestic drinking water connections during the first 2 quarters of the year 2020, taking necessary action to do away with the aforesaid obstacles, was approved by the Cabinet.