Sri Lanka’s Cabinet has approved the construction of 934 Rain Water Harvesting Tanks in Jaffna district by Government of India. During a cabinet briefing on Tuesday (2nd July 2024) , it was informed that the proposal was placed before the cabinet by Minister of Justice, Prison Affairs and Constitutional Reforms, Wijeyadasa Rajapakse to complete an existing project. An MoU between the two countries was signed in January 2017 to construct 3000 rainwater harvesting tanks to provide clean drinking water in the Jaffna district. In  October 2022, 1831 PVC rainwater tanks were installed and the remaining funds under the project will now be utilised to construct the 934 tanks approved yesterday.

Considering the grave problem of quality of drinking water in entire Jaffna Peninsula, India had agreed  to construct 3,000 Rain Water Harvesting Tanks in the District of Jaffna. The project that was signed in 2017 was finalised at a cost of 300 million Sri Lankan Rupees. As there are no perennial rivers or streams flowing through Jaffna Peninsula, Groundwater had been over exploited and contaminated.