Muthukandiya is a village in Moneragala district, one of the drought-stricken areas in the "dry zone" of southern Sri Lanka, whe

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问题    Muthukandiya is a village in Moneragala district, one of the drought-stricken areas in the "dry zone" of southern Sri Lanka, where half the country’s population of 18 million lives. Rainfall in the area varies greatly from year to year, often bringing extreme dry spells in between monsoons. But this drought was much worse than usual. Despite some rain in November, only half of Moneragala’s 1, 400 tube wells were in working order by March. The drought devastated supplies of rice and freshwater fish, the staple diet of inland villages. Many local industries closed down and villagers headed for the towns in search of work.
   The villagers of Muthukandiya arrived in the 1970s as part of a government resettlement scheme. Each family was given six acres of land, with no irrigation system. Because crop production, which relies entirely on rainfall, is insufficient to support most families, the village economy relies on men and women working as day-laborers in nearby sugar-cane plantations. Three wells have been dug to provide domestic water, but these run dry for much of the year. Women and children may spend several hours each day walking up to three miles (five kilometers) to fetch water for drinking, washing and cooking.
   In 1998, communities in the district discussed water problems with Practical Action South Asia. What followed was a drought mitigation initiative based on a low-cost "rainwater harvesting" technology already used in Sri Lanka and elsewhere in the region. It uses tanks to collect and store rain channeled by gutters and pipes as it runs off the roofs of houses.
   Despite an indigenous tradition of rainwater harvesting and irrigation systems going back to the third century B. C. , policy-makers in modern times have often overlooked the value of such technologies, and it is only recently that officials have taken much interest in household-level structures. Government and other programs have, however, been top-down in their conception and application, installing tanks free of charge without providing training in the skills needed to build and maintain them properly. Practical Action South Asia’s project deliberately took a different approach, aiming to build up a local skills base among builders and users of the tanks, and to create structures and systems so that communities can manage their own rainwater harvesting schemes.
   The community of Muthukandiya was involved throughout. Two meetings were held where villagers analyzed their water problems, developed a mitigation plan and selected the rainwater harvesting technology. Two local masons received several days’ on-the-job training in building the 5,000 liter household storage tanks.-surface tanks out of ferro-cement and underground tanks out of brick. Each system, including tank, pipes, gutters and filters, cost US $ 195—equivalent to a month’s income for an average village family. Just over half the cost was provided by the community, in the form of materials and unskilled labor. Practical Action South Asia contributed the rest, including cement, transport and payment for the skilled labor. Answer the following questions with NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.
What helps family obtain more water for domestic needs than those relying on only wells and ponds?

选项

答案Rainwater harvesting technology.

解析 事实细节题。文章第二段指出,仅靠水井和水池不能满足人们的用水需求。接下来第三段指出,一项低成本的雨水收集技术已经应用,即屋顶流下的雨水通过水槽和管道流入蓄水池,并被存储在池中。由此可知,利用雨水收集技术可以帮助人们收集更多的雨水。
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