VOA慢速英语:斯里兰卡使用雨水来灌溉农作物与发电

Sri Lankaplansto store and use a billion cubic meters of rainwater each year to support irrigation and power generation. The rainwater would go into the sea if it is not used.

斯里兰卡计划每年将存储与使用十亿立方米的雨水用以支持灌溉与发电。如果雨水不被使用将会流入大海。

Sri Lankais building the new water management system in the country's dry zone. The area covers the northern and eastern parts of the country. It is home to about one-third of Sri Lanka’s twenty million people. It is also mainly agricultural land.

在比较干旱的区域，斯里兰卡正在建设新的水资源管理体制。此地带覆盖了这一国家的北部与东北部地区。斯里兰卡两千万人口中近三分之一的人口居住在这里。这里也是主要的农业用地区。

Climate change has severely hurt the area in the past 10 years. The region is also is suffering a severe water crisis.

Sri Lankan men push their bicycles through flood waters after heavy rains in Batticaloa, about 320 km (199 miles) east of Colombo, 13 Jan 2011

过去十年里，气候变化对该区域造成严重影响。该地区还正在遭受严重的水危机。

Experts say the project could use enough water to fill two of the country's largest reservoirs, Victoria and Randenigala.

专家声称，这个项目可以使充足的水资源来填补全国最大的两个水库，维多利亚水库与兰登尼加拉水库。

The government and donorsare paying for the $675-million project. Work begins this month and should be completed by December 2024.

政府与捐助者支付这一6.75亿美元的项目。这一项目将于本月实施，应于2024年12月完工。

The plan is one of the nation's largest water-related projects in the past years. It includes the construction of two new reservoirs and 260 kilometers of new canals linking existing reservoirs.

在过去几年里，这一计划是该国最大的与水相关项目之一。它包括建设两个新水库以及将260公里的新运河与现有水库进行连接。

The aim is to help the dry zone better control its water supply for power generation and farming.

其目的在于帮助干旱区域更好地控制其发电与耕作的水资源供给。

S. Shanmugasivanathan is a top official with the Department of Irrigation. He said that rainpatterns have been changing and the dry zone is getting less water now. He said Sri Lanka needs to make the most of the water usage.

灌溉部一位高级官员，S. Shanmugasivanathan，他声称降雨模式一直在发生变化，干旱地区可获得的降水越来越少。他表示斯里兰卡需要充分利用水资源。

The country’s rainfall is 2,000 millimeters per year.Less than half falls in the dry zone. Most of the farming there depends on irrigation. Small water tanks hold water from the region's large reservoirs.

该国的降雨量为每年2000毫米，不到一半的降水位于干旱地区。在这儿，大多数的耕作依赖灌溉。小水箱存储来自于该地区的大型水库的水。

Mr. Shanmugasivanathan said the dry zone faces the extremes of floods and drought as the rain patterns have changed. But, he said there is no system in place to capture flood waters, so drought can happen even in years of floods.

Shanmugasivanathan先生还声称，随着降雨模式发生变化，干旱地区面临洪水与干旱的极端。不但是，他表示，目前没有适当的系统来截留洪水，因此，甚至在洪水的年份也会发生干旱。

Water to fight against poverty

用水来消除贫困

A water infrastructure project for the dry zone has been in Sri Lankan plans since the 1970s. The Mahaweli Development Program included such ideas for the country's central hills and some of the north.

自1970年代以来，针对干旱区域的水利基础设施建设项目就存在于斯里兰卡计划中。马哈威利发展项目也包括这些想法，其针对该国家中部丘陵以及北方一些地区。

The idea was to use the waters of the MahaweliRiver, the longest in the country, to increase power generation capacity by about 260 megawatts.

当时的想法是利用马哈威利河的水域，该国最长的水域，将发电能力增加到约260兆瓦。

It was also designed to provide irrigation water to an additional 131,500hectares of land.

它也用来为额外的131，500公顷土地。提供灌溉用水。

But civil war delayed the project for 25 years until 2009.

但是内战将这一项目拖延了25年，直到2009年。

Sri Lankan and Asian Development Bank officials said the new water management project is based on the Mahaweli plans. The ADB is providing$453 million in funding.

斯里兰卡和亚洲开发银行官员表示，新的水资源管理项目基于马哈威利计划。亚洲开发银行将提供4.53亿资金。

The international lender also estimates that 70 percent of the dry zone's population depends on agriculture. The average yearly earnings of the people there is 10 percent lower than in other parts of the country.

国际贷款人也估计，70％的干旱区域人口依靠农业。在这儿，人民的平均收入每年比该国其他地区低10％。

Lance Gore is a water resources expertwith the ADB in the Philippine capital, Manila. He said the organization hopes that the new project will help end poverty in the area. The water expert said more water will increase the earning level of people dependent on agriculture. It also aims to supply safe drinking water to 350,000 people.

兰斯·戈尔是亚洲开发银行的一位水资源专家，该银行位于菲律宾首都马尼拉。他表示该组织希望新项目将有助于消除该地区的贫困。水利专家表示更多的水将提高那些依赖于农业人口的收入水平。它还旨在为350，000人提供安全饮用水。

I’m Jonathan Evans.

Reuters provided this report. Triwik Kurniasari adapted it for Learning English. Caty Weaver was the editor.

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Words in This Story

irrigation– n. system of bringing water to plants for agricultural purposes

zone– n. an area that is different from other areas in a particular way

reservoirs– n. usually human-made lake is used to store a large supply of water for use in people’s homes, businesses, etc.

canal – n. a long, narrow waterway

pattern– n. something that happens in a regular way

drought– n. a long period of time during which there is little or no rain