Thousands of people displaced in Sri Lanka's north, east provinces due to torrential rain

Sri Lanka has been receiving torrential rains for couple of weeks, with the situation being severe in the Northern and Eastern provinces, the Colombo Page reported on Sunday.

In the Eastern province over 79,000 people have been affected by the floods and 2,507 people from 798 families have been displaced, the paper reported, citing the data released by the Disaster Management Centre.

"Similarly, in five districts of the Northern province 64,448 people have been affected by the floods while 8,478 people from 2,611 families have been displaced. They are accommodated at 56 shelters," the paper reported.

The government has allocated 1.7 million Sri Lankan Rupees for the provision of cooked meals to the displaced people at shelters and dry rations to the people temporarily staying with friends and relatives.

Northern province's District Secretariat has requested 16.6 million Sri Lankan Rupees from the Disaster Management Center to provide relief to all those affected by the floods and inclement weather, the report said.

Sri Lanka's Department of Meteorology has said that various parts of the island nation will witness a showery condition in the coming days, and has urged the people to take adequate precautions to minimise the damages.

"Due to a low level atmospheric disturbance in the southeast of Sri Lanka prevailing showery condition over the island particularly in the Eastern, Uva, North-Central and Northern provinces is likely to enhance further from Sunday night," the department said in a statement.

"Showers or thundershowers will occur in most parts of the island," the statement said.