Japan has agreed to provide a 520 million Yen grant to Sri Lanka, for the purchase of agricultural machinery and equipment to be used by underprivileged farmers, Media Minister Anura Priyadharshana Yapa said yesterday.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday directed the Urban Development and Environment Ministries to draft a Parliamentary Act that could manage the garbage menace.

Prof. Fonseka
By Ifham Nizam

Minister of Environment and Natural Resources Patali Champika Ranawaka said though one billion rupees had been invested on conservation of the environment the forests, the environment gave a return worth 59 billion rupees annually.

Forty two people from 15 districts died of rabies last year according to the National Anti-Rabies Unit of the Health Ministry.
Highest number of deaths, 10, was reported from the Batticaloa district. Kurunegala 7, Puttalam and Galle 5 each, Anuradhapura 3, Kalutara, Kandy and Badulla 2 each, Kegalle, Nuwara-Eliya, Matara, Hambantotta, Monaragala and Mullaitivu reported one death each.

Minister of Nation Building S. M. Chandrasena said his Ministry had been allocated Rs 24,000 million for 2009 and Rs 6,000 million had been set aside for community driven livelihood development and the infrastructural development in the Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu districts.

The government has launched an ambitious Rs. 11 billion project to divert the waters of the Menik Ganga, Deduru Oya and the Kumbukkan Oya, which go to waste by ending up in the ocean, to enable 18,000 farmer families to cultivate 54,000 acres of paddy land during both Yala and Maha seasons.

Sri Lanka will adopt methods implemented in Cuba to prevent the spread of mosquito borne diseases. This would initially cover preventive measures to eradicate leptospirosis (rat fever), dengue and malaria by eradication of breeding places, the Health Ministry said.

Sri Lankan ichthyologists have discovered a new species of freshwater fish in the south western wet zone which they have named Puntius Kelumi or Kelum

Land based pollution is increasing at an alarming rate in Sri Lanka and it stands at 90 per cent in comparison to the international level of 40 per cent, Marine Pollution Prevention Authority (MPPA) Chairman M. A. R. Kularatne said.
Waste material washed into the sea from the land has been the main cause of marine pollution, he said.