雅思高频阅读READING PASSAGE 10

READING PASSAGE 10

Rainwater Harvesting

For two years southern Sri Lanka suffered a prolonged drought, described by locals

as

crop for four or five

consecutive

seasons.

Livestock

died,

water

in

wells

dropped

to

dangerously

low

levels,children were increasingly malnourished and school attendance has fallen. An

estimated 1.6 million people were affected.

A

Muthukandiya

is

a

village

in

Moneragala

district,

one

of

the

drought-stricken

areas in the

of

18

million

lives.

Rainfall

in

the

area

varies

greatly

from

year

to

year,

often

bringing

extreme

dry

spells

in

between

monsoons.

But

this

drought

was

much

worse

than

usual.

Despite

some

rain

in

November,

only

half

of

Moneragala's

1,400 tube wells in working order by March. The drought devastated supplies of

rice and freshwater fish, the staple diet of inland villages. Many local industries

closed down and villagers headed for the towns in search of work.

B

The

villagers

of

Muthukandiya

arrived

in

the

1970s

as

part

of

a

government

resettlement scheme. Each family was given six acres of land, with no irrigation

system. Because crop production, which relies entirely on rainfall, is insufficient

to support most families, the village economy relies on men and women working

as day-labourers in nearby sugar-cane plantations. Three wells have been dug to

provide

domestic

water,

but

these

run

dry

for

much

of

the

year.

Women

and

children

may

spend

several

hours

each

day

walking

up

to

three

miles

(five

kilometres) to fetch water for drinking, washing and cooking.

C

In

1998,

communities

in

the

district

discussed

water

problems

with

Practical

Action South Asia. What followed was a drought mitigation initiative based on a

low-cost

< br>harvesting

technology

already

used

in

Sri

Lanka

and

elsewhere

in

the

region.

It

uses

tanks

to

collect

and

store

rain

channelled

by

gutters and pipes as it runs off the roofs of houses.

D

Despite

an

indigenous

tradition

of

rain-water

harvesting

and

irrigation

systems

going

back

to

the

third

century

BC,

policy-makers

in

modern

times

have

often

overlooked

the

value

of

such

technologies,

and

it

is

only

recently

that

officials

have

taken

much

interest

in

household-level

structures.

Government

and

other

programmes have, however, been top-down in their conception and application,

installing tanks free of charge without providing training in the skills needed to

build

and

maintain

them

properly.

Practical

Action

South

Asia's

project

deliberately

took

a

different

approach,

aiming

to

build

up

a

local

skills

base

among

builders

and

users

of

the

tanks,

and

to

create

structures

and

systems

so

that communities can manage their own rainwater harvesting schemes.

E

The community of Muthukandiya was involved throughout. Two meetings were