Drinking water in Sri Lanka

District by district, from the 2024 census: a well, a pipe or a filtered-water plant.

Drinking water

Where does drinking water come from?

Across the country 50 in 100 households drink piped water and 37 in 100 well water. In nine districts, more than half drink well water.

2024Households' main source of drinking water

50 in 100 households drink piped water

In nine districts, more than half of households drink well water. In colour, every district where more than half of households have water from a well; the rest grey
Ampara: 17 in 100 households from a well, 82 from a pipe, 1 from a filtered-water plantAnuradhapura: 6 in 100 households from a well, 22 from a pipe, 67 from a filtered-water plantBadulla: 21 in 100 households from a well, 59 from a pipe, 2 from a filtered-water plantBatticaloa: 58 in 100 households from a well, 42 from a pipe, 0 from a filtered-water plantColombo: 13 in 100 households from a well, 87 from a pipe, 0 from a filtered-water plantGalle: 57 in 100 households from a well, 41 from a pipe, 0 from a filtered-water plantGampaha: 56 in 100 households from a well, 44 from a pipe, 0 from a filtered-water plantHambantota: 15 in 100 households from a well, 77 from a pipe, 4 from a filtered-water plantJaffna: 83 in 100 households from a well, 11 from a pipe, 1 from a filtered-water plantKalutara: 51 in 100 households from a well, 48 from a pipe, 0 from a filtered-water plantKandy: 18 in 100 households from a well, 73 from a pipe, under 1 from a filtered-water plantKegalle: 50 in 100 households from a well, 35 from a pipe, 0 from a filtered-water plantKilinochchi: 83 in 100 households from a well, 13 from a pipe, 1 from a filtered-water plantKurunegala: 62 in 100 households from a well, 13 from a pipe, 19 from a filtered-water plantMannar: 38 in 100 households from a well, 45 from a pipe, 10 from a filtered-water plantMatale: 29 in 100 households from a well, 58 from a pipe, 7 from a filtered-water plantMatara: 45 in 100 households from a well, 50 from a pipe, under 1 from a filtered-water plantMonaragala: 28 in 100 households from a well, 59 from a pipe, 9 from a filtered-water plantMullaitivu: 73 in 100 households from a well, 11 from a pipe, 14 from a filtered-water plantNuwara Eliya: 13 in 100 households from a well, 50 from a pipe, under 1 from a filtered-water plantPolonnaruwa: 15 in 100 households from a well, 52 from a pipe, 32 from a filtered-water plantPuttalam: 38 in 100 households from a well, 21 from a pipe, 25 from a filtered-water plantRatnapura: 33 in 100 households from a well, 54 from a pipe, under 1 from a filtered-water plantTrincomalee: 17 in 100 households from a well, 76 from a pipe, 7 from a filtered-water plantVavuniya: 48 in 100 households from a well, 16 from a pipe, 32 from a filtered-water plant
  1. Kilinochchi83 in 100
  2. Jaffna83 in 100
  3. Mullaitivu73 in 100
  4. Kurunegala62 in 100
  5. Batticaloa58 in 100
  6. 4 more over half

37in 100Across the country

  • 83Higher: Kilinochchi
  • 6Lower: Anuradhapura

The other 23 lie between.

Source: Department of Census and Statistics, Sri Lanka, census of 2024

See the details

Every district: households in 100 with water from a well

  • Kilinochchi83
  • Jaffna83
  • Mullaitivu73
  • Kurunegala62
  • Batticaloa58
  • Galle57
  • Gampaha56
  • Kalutara51
  • Kegalle50
  • Vavuniya48
  • Matara45
  • Mannar38
  • Puttalam38
  • Ratnapura33
  • Matale29
  • Monaragala28
  • Badulla21
  • Kandy18
  • Ampara17
  • Trincomalee17
  • Hambantota15
  • Polonnaruwa15
  • Colombo13
  • Nuwara Eliya13
  • Anuradhapura6

Every district: households in 100 with water from a pipe

  • Colombo87
  • Ampara82
  • Hambantota77
  • Trincomalee76
  • Kandy73
  • Monaragala59
  • Badulla59
  • Matale58
  • Ratnapura54
  • Polonnaruwa52
  • Nuwara Eliya50
  • Matara50
  • Kalutara48
  • Mannar45
  • Gampaha44
  • Batticaloa42
  • Galle41
  • Kegalle35
  • Anuradhapura22
  • Puttalam21
  • Vavuniya16
  • Kurunegala13
  • Kilinochchi13
  • Mullaitivu11
  • Jaffna11

Every district: households in 100 with water from a filtered-water plant

  • Anuradhapura67
  • Vavuniya32
  • Polonnaruwa32
  • Puttalam25
  • Kurunegala19
  • Mullaitivu14
  • Mannar10
  • Monaragala9
  • Matale7
  • Trincomalee7
  • Hambantota4
  • Badulla2
  • Jaffna1
  • Ampara1
  • Kilinochchi1
  • Kandyunder 1
  • Mataraunder 1
  • Nuwara Eliyaunder 1
  • Ratnapuraunder 1
  • Batticaloa0
  • Colombo0
  • Galle0
  • Gampaha0
  • Kalutara0
  • Kegalle0

This is what each household told the census about its main source of drinking water. It is not a test of the water. No one publishes tested water quality district by district.

The three kinds shown do not cover every household: springs, rivers, rain, bottled water and water brought by lorry are left out.

“From a well” adds protected wells, partly protected wells, unprotected wells and tube wells. “From a pipe” adds the national water board, local councils, community schemes and private schemes. A filtered-water plant is a place where people collect cleaned water, common in the dry zone.

Across the country, water tested in 2021 had germs from waste in it for 84 in 100 people on an unprotected well or spring, 83 on a protected well, 60 on a tube well and 44 on piped water.

Sources: Department of Census and Statistics, Sri Lanka, Census of Population and Housing 2024: Report on Basic Housing Information by Districts and Divisional Secretariat Divisions, Table 8, page 89 of the file. Department of Census and Statistics, Sri Lanka, Household Survey of Drinking Water Quality – 2021, page 48 of the file.

Drinking water

Is drinking water safe in Sri Lanka?

Only 33 in 100 people have drinking water that is safely managed. Two in three do nothing to their water before drinking it.

2021Safely managed drinking water

33 in 100 people have safely managed drinking water, tested 2021

Estates: 3 in 100, the fewest. People in every 100 with safely managed drinking water, 2021

In every 100

  • Towns: 69 in 100
  • Countryside: 28 in 100
  • Estates: 3 in 100

Source: Department of Census and Statistics, Sri Lanka, water testing survey, 2021

See the details

Is drinking water safe in Sri Lanka?

Counted

Only 33 in 100 people have drinking water that is safely managed. Two in three do nothing to their water before drinking it.

Germs from waste in the water, people in 100

  • Unprotected well or spring84 in 100
  • Protected well83 in 100
  • Tube well60 in 100
  • Piped water44 in 100

Cross-checkSri Lanka's own figure: 33 in 100 with safely managed water, tested 2021World Health Organization and UNICEF: 47 in 100 for 2024, from the same tests

Department of Census and Statistics, Sri Lanka, water testing survey, 2021

Town, countryside and estates

People in every 100 with safely managed drinking water.

  • Towns69 in 100
  • Countryside28 in 100
  • Estates3 in 100

Source: Department of Census and Statistics, Sri Lanka, Household Survey of Drinking Water Quality – 2021, page 34 of the file.

Piped water: two figures
  • The water board, of its own samples that passed for germs, 202397.4 in 100
  • People on piped water whose water was free of the germ at the source, tested 202155.8 in 100

The two measure different things. The water board tests samples of its own supply. The survey tested the water at people's homes, including pipes run by councils, community schemes and private schemes. Dooram shows both and has found nothing that reconciles them.

Sources: National Water Supply and Drainage Board, Sri Lanka, Annual Report 2023, pages 18 and 42 of the file. Department of Census and Statistics, Sri Lanka, Household Survey of Drinking Water Quality – 2021, page 48 of the file.

What people do to their water
  • Nothing67 in 100
  • Boil it22 in 100
  • Filter it9 in 100

Some households do more than one of these.

Source: Department of Census and Statistics, Sri Lanka, Household Survey of Drinking Water Quality – 2021, pages 32 and 51 of the file.

What studies have found in well water

Germs from waste. In Kegalle district, 62 in 100 dug-well samples were over Sri Lanka's limit for a germ that comes from human and animal waste. So were 48 in 100 tap samples and 94 in 100 spring samples. (113 samples, from August 2009.)

Fluoride and hard water, in the dry zone. In about 1,250 samples of water from under the ground, taken since 2015, fluoride reached 6.8 milligrams in a litre, a level the authors call excessive, and much of the water was very hard. These come from the rock, so boiling does not remove them.

These are local studies, not figures for the whole country, and one is from 2009.

Sources: University of Peradeniya, Water distribution systems and diarrheal disease transmission: a case study in Kagelle district, 2011. Journal of the National Science Foundation of Sri Lanka, Geo-environmental assessment of geochemistry of groundwater and associated human health risks in the dry zone terrain of Sri Lanka, 2022.

Farm chemicals, and what the health ministry found

In the farming districts where a kidney disease is common, Sri Lanka's Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization tested people, their water and the fertiliser used there.

In fertiliser: cadmium, a metal that harms the kidneys, at up to 30.8 micrograms in a gram, where the study gives 4 as the acceptable limit.

In people: more cadmium in the urine of those with the disease, and traces of farm pesticides above reference levels in about a third of them.

In drinking water: cadmium, lead and uranium “were within normal limits”.

The study concludes that cadmium is a risk factor and that “multiple agents may play a role”. It does not name one cause.

On cancer: small studies have looked for a link between fertiliser in well water and cancer. Dooram has found no health authority saying that one has been shown, so it does not say so.

Source: Ministry of Health, Sri Lanka, and World Health Organization, BMC Nephrology, Chronic kidney disease of uncertain aetiology: prevalence and causative factors in a developing country, 2013.

About this figure

Safely managed means the water is on the premises, there when needed, and was free of a germ that comes from human and animal waste when tested. The testers visited 3,210 homes in all 25 districts in 2021 and tested the water where it comes from and in the glass.

At the source, 55.6 in 100 people had water with the germ in it; in the glass, 65.6 in 100. A protected well tested about the same as an unprotected one, and piped water was not clean either.

The survey itself says the germ “does not necessarily mean that the person drinking it will become sick, but it indicates that over time the household is at higher risk for waterborne diseases”. It did not test for farm chemicals. Nothing has been tested across the country since 2021.

The World Health Organization and UNICEF work the same tests out differently and reach 47 in 100. Dooram leads with Sri Lanka's own figure and uses the other only to compare countries.

Sources: Department of Census and Statistics, Sri Lanka, Household Survey of Drinking Water Quality – 2021, pages 5, 11, 15, 18 and 34 of the file. World Health Organization and UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme, Country file for Sri Lanka, read 10 October 2026.

The air people breathe

Is the air clean in Sri Lanka?

The air across the country holds far more fine particles than the advised level.

2023Fine particles in the air

4× the fine particles the World Health Organization advises

21.2: over the World Health Organization guideline of 5. Fine particles, micrograms in a cubic metre of air, the average over 2023

21.2Sri Lanka, over the year 2023 · micrograms in a cubic metre of air

  • Over World Health Organization guideline, 5

Source: World Health Organization, 2023

See the details

Measured in micrograms in a cubic metre of air, averaged over a year and over the whole country. It is an estimate from a model, not a reading from one place.

Source: United Nations Statistics Division, SDG Global Database, from the World Health Organization, read 11 October 2026. Guideline: World Health Organization air quality guidelines, 2021.

Dooram informs; it does not give medical advice. Every figure names who published it and when.

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