Article Store

Since the beginning of the decade, the number of tube wells with hand pumps being built in rural community water delivery projects in Sri Lanka has grown dramatically. On the island, there are currently approximately 13,000 tube wells with hand pumps, most of which are located in the dry zone. The challenges of tube well water quality have grown in importance as the number of tube wells has increased. The high fluoride concentration in groundwater, particularly in low-lying parts of the dry zone, is one of the primary water quality issues. Fluorine is one of the most common elements in the geogenic environment, and its ionic form fluoride is widespread in natural water. Although fluoride is an important component of human health in small amounts, excessive fluoride has negative health consequences. Sri Lanka, like many other tropical nations, has high amounts of fluoride in its groundwater, which is the primary supply of drinking water. The dry zone has naturally occurring high-fluorid...

A cascade system is a connected series of tanks organized within a micro-catchment of the dry zone in Sri Lanka. The tanks are used to store water from a seasonal stream. The stored water is conveyed to other tanks downstream and used for a variety of purposes. Irrigation tanks are often not isolated tanks but are part of a larger interconnected system of tanks called a ‘tank cascade system’. It has connected with series of tanks organized within a micro-catchments.   A ‘cascade system’ is the traditional unit used in the management of tanks. From ancient times it is referred to as ‘Ellangawa’. The term is made up of the Sinhalese words ‘ ellan ’, meaning hanging and ‘ gawa ’, meaning one after the other. The image on the left shows the organization of tanks and their connectivity within a typical tank cascade system. The image below shows the micro-catchment of a typical village tank, which is usually the main tank of a cascade system. Different river basins have different ...

   Introduction People use plastic bags to carry items like food and clothes, which are bought from shops. Plastic bags are commonly used, even though we know they can damage the environment. For urban solid waste, plastic bags have become major items in the litter system. This has resulted in many detrimental environmental effects including animal choking, pollution, blockage of channels, rivers, and streams, and landscape disfigurement. As a result of these effects, the public at large, activists, and legislatures have voiced outrage to the degree that some national governments have banned the use of plastic bags for shopping. There are many root causes to attribute the problem of plastic bag waste in Nigeria and other countries. South Africa, for example, has restricted the manufacture and usage of plastic bags by enacting parliamentary legislation. Several European countries have adopted a fee for plastic bags, taking into account the negative effect of plastic bags on agr...

දුටු නුදුටු ගන්නෝරු වනස්පති Biodiversity is the sum of life on Earth and living legacy to future generations. Unfortunately it is declining almost everywhere on the Planet including Sri Lanka. Isn’t it our duty to protect this valuable Biodiversity…? This is a short documentary on Biodiversity and Threats of Gannoruwa Forest Reserve in Sri Lanka. Please Watch, Like, Share and give your Comments to the video. Just a Click of yours adds us scores…!

  "Energy," which includes physical movements such as moving something from one place to another, warming something, or lighting something, can also be explained. There are many forms of energy such as heat, kinetic or mechanical energy, light, potential energy, electrical energy, or several other types. In our everyday lives, we use energy in various forms and cannot imagine about surviving without it. We use energy to illuminate our residences and also for street lighting, to be sufficient to activate machinery and equipment in factories, to help cook our food, to play music and operate televisions, and many more every day. Conservation of energy is an action that has been taken to reduce energy consumption by using less energy. Increased financial capital, better environmental performance, national security, personal security, and human comfort may lead to this. Individuals and businesses are referred to as primary energy consumers who may need to conserve energy to redu...

Abstract: Mangroves are of great ecological importance and socio-economic significance as a hub for tropical marine biotope. The mangroves are also one of the world’s richest storehouses of biological and genetic diversity. Furthermore, 90 % of the marine organisms spend part of their life in this ecosystem and 80 % of the global fish catches are dependent on mangroves. Mangrove forests are considered as a highly productive ecosystem, they provide important ecological and economic services. Besides, mangroves and their associated biota are identified as a promising source of natural and novel drugs. Introduction Mangrove is a salt-tolerant plant that occurs within inter-tidal zones where a river enters into the sea, especially in the coastal belt. They are a highly productive, tropical coastal ecosystem encompassing estuaries, creeks, lagoons, backwaters, mud-flats, salt-pans, and islands which has both great aquatic and terrestrial biodiversity and plays an integral role in coastal e...

වසර 22 කට පසු ශ්‍රී ලංකාවෙන් නව අං-කටුසු විශේෂයක් ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට ආවේණික කටුසු ගණයක් වන Ceratophora හි විශේෂ 5 ක් මේ වන විට හඳුනාගෙන ඇත.මින් Ceratophora stoddartii පළමුවෙන්ම විස්තර කරන ලද්දේ ග්‍රේ විසින් 1834 වසරේදීය. පසුව Ceratophora tennentii, Ceratophora aspera විස්තර කරනු ලැබූ අතර අවසන් වරට විස්තර කරන ලද්දේ රක්වාන කඳුවැටිය ආශ්‍රිතව ව්‍යාප්තව සිටින Ceratophora erdeleni හා Ceratophora karu යන විශේෂ දෙකයි. ඒ 1998 වසරේදී කැළුම් මනමේන්ද්‍ර-ආරච්චි හා රොහාන් පෙතියාගොඩ විසිනි. Ceratophora aspera ( රළු අං කටුස්සා) ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ වැඩිම භූගෝලීය ව්‍යාප්තිය දක්වන විශේෂ ලෙස හඳුන්වනු ලබයි. එම විශේෂයේ කෞතුකාගාර නිදර්ශක හා පහතරට තෙත් කළාපයේ ඇතැම් ප්‍රදේශ වලින් හමුවන සතුන්ගේ ලක්ෂණ වල වෙනසක් ඇති බව ක්ෂේස්ත්‍ර ජීව විද්‍යාඥ සමීර සුරංජන් කරුණාරත්න ඇතුළු පර්යේෂක කණ්ඩායමට දැකගැනීමට හැකි වී ඇත. ඒ ඔස්සේ සිදුකරන ලද රූපවිද්‍යාත්මක හා ජානමය පර්යේෂණ මගින් කෑගල්ල දිස්ත්‍රික්කයේ සල්ගල වනයේ සිටින ගහණය නව විශේෂයක් ලෙස හඳුනාගැනීමට හැකිව තිබේ. මෙම නව විශේෂය රජරට විශ්ව විද්‍යාලයේ ආචාර්ය , පරිණාමික ජීවවිද්‍යාඥ හා ...