Groundwater Section of National Water Supply & Drainage Board was established in 1978 with the assistance of UNICEF. Initially the major task of the Groundwater section was the construction of hand pump tube wells in the rural areas in dry zone of the country. In the early days our work mainly concentrated over districts of Moneragala, Hambantota and Anuradhapura and other areas of the dry zone. So far, we have contributed to a number of foreign and local funded projects including DANIDA, FINNIDA, GT2, IRDP, CWSSIP, ADB, UNICEF, NORD and WASSIP in order to fulfill the drinking water needs of peri-urban and rural communities.

Up to now more than 32,000 tube wells (hand pump tube wells and productive wells) have been constructed for drinking and other purposes. In addition, we have done hydrogeological investigations for the development of groundwater resources for NWSDB Water Supply Schemes, resulting in numerous dug wells and tube wells constructed for water extraction purposes.

Groundwater activities in National water Supply & Drainage Board are conducted through nine groundwater offices which located in each province of Sri Lanka.