COLOMBO -- Over 50,000 families in eight out of nine provinces in Sri Lanka have been affected by the prevailing dry spell, the Disaster Management Centre (DMC) said in its latest situation report on Thursday.

The DMC said there are over 180,000 people belonging to these families affected by the dry weather in terms of scarcity of drinking water. According to it, the northern and eastern provinces are the hardest hit by the dry weather.

Earlier, Agriculture Minister Mahinda Amaraweera said 37,000 acres of rice fields had been destroyed. The agricultural authorities are assessing the damage for compensations to be paid to farmers.

According to the meteorology department of Sri Lanka, the dry weather, caused by the southwest monsoon failure, will continue till the end of September.