Sri Lanka’s breastfeeding campaign initiated in 1979 when the rate of breastfeeding was a meagre 10 per cent had increased to 76 per cent during 30 years, Chief of the Health and Nutrition Section of UNICEF Sri Lanka Dr. Moazzem Hossain said.

A baby could survive for six months on mother’s milk alone even without single drop of water," Dr. Hossain said at a press conference in Colombo.

He said that the Sri Lanka’s successful national programme of breastfeeding as one of the reasons for selecting Sri Lanka as the next venue of Asia’s breastfeeding Forum.

One Asia 6 will be held in Colombo from November 18 to 21 which will be hosted by Ministry of Healthcare and Nutrition and the Ministry of Child Development and Women’s Empowerment.

The theme of this year’s forum which is held every three years is ‘Breastfeeding in Emergencies: Challenges and solutions. "It is timely and important given the recent emergencies faced in Asia. Natural disasters and conflicts have resulted in communities having to face emergencies of unprecedented scale in most counties in Asia. We saw Sri Lankan mothers facing the Tsunami situation. We went to the IDP camps and studied the situation there too," Dr. Hossain said.

Dr. Dhammika Rowel of the Family Health Bureau of the Health Ministry said that Sri Lanka was in the top of the region in its breastfeeding rate. Their institution had advised mothers to breastfeeding their babies during the first six months. It was essential, but mothers gave up it because they had to go back to work in three months.