Abstract:
According to the 2012 census report, the total
the population of Sri Lanka was 20.3 million and
about 85% of them live in rural and peri-urban
areas of the country and agriculture is a major
component of the economy [1]. Until the
Covid 19 become a pandemic issue in the
the year 2019/2020, the chronic kidney disease of
Unknown etiology (CKDu) was one of the
significant medical problems caught the
consideration of Sri Lankan society at all
levels. A large and developing number of
rural Sri Lankans experience the effects of
CKDu since the mid-1990s. Most of the
CKDu patients were found in the dry zone of
Sri Lanka, where farming is the primary
earning for those inhabitants [2,3].
Polonnaruwa, in the north-central province, is
one of the important districts, where the
CKDu is prevailing significantly, in Sri
Lanka.4 Paddy and Chena cultivation are
common livelihood in these destitution-stricken regions. The paddy farmers always
work with pesticides and composts and thus
become definitive casualties of CKDu.
Many studies have been conducted to find a
possible aetiological cause for the disease and
several hypotheses were generated. These
include pesticides, fluoride [4,5], heavy
metals such as cadmium and arsenic, and
the hardness of groundwater, but none have
brought forth convincing evidence regarding
an aetiological factor.
Because of the wide discrepancy of the causes
stipulated, the objective of this study was to
find any correlation of drinking water quality
with no. of cases, prevalence, and trend of
CKDu in four divisional secretariat divisions,
namely Elahera, Lankapura, Medirigiriya,
and Hingurakgoda DS divisions in
Polonnaruwa district of North Central Province
of Sri Lanka, which was the first province in
which the disease was identified.
