About 170 million litres of water are wasted every day in Sri Lanka's capital, Colombo. The National Water Supply and Drainage Board supplies 236.39 million litres of water every day to metropolitan Colombo and 263.67 million litres to the suburbs. The bulk of this is wasted as residents of poor neighbourhoods, shanties, tenement gardens and slumdwellers do not feel any responsibility towards conserving water, which is provided free to them, according to a Panos report. Water is wasted through leaks in pipelines, compounded by consumers failing to turn off taps. Besides, water is also pilfered through illegal connections.
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