SPOTLIGHT

A tragedy - up close and personal

By Amantha Perera

What  hits most when a body is unearthed after four days under mud is the smell. When the body slowly emerges from within, the foul smell that hits you physically is the reality check that television images cannot replicate.

You keep telling yourself that the headless mangled lump that appears slowly was once a human being, but the smell is overwhelming. Then the flies appear from nowhere buzzing with excitement and with a sole purpose, to get as close as they can to the festering flesh.

These were scenes at Palvilla, in Ratnapura, where a massive landslide had buried 40 odd houses and turned the once bustling village into one mass grave.

The body was headless and hardly identifiable. It was covered in a black polythene wrapper and left on the roadside soon after discovery. While the body was left unattended - a curiosity object to the humans as well as the flies who loved it when the over-curious lifted the wrapper - police officers and other government officials at the earthslip site had marshaled the best vantage point to set up their table and appeared more concerned of their position and comfort than what they were supposed to do.

The treatment meted out to the body and countless such others was symbolic of how disaster management was unbundling in the worst hit areas. While state television and every other media organisation worth its 12 cents kept harping on the disaster and calling on the people to come together, the picture on the ground was totally different.  

Only on TV

Images of burly politicos alighting from air force  helicopters on dry spots in the disaster hit areas gave the false impression that relief was reaching the needed and reaching them fast. Reality, however, was different. Walking through villages that looked more like Kilinochchi or Chavakachcheri but with a whole lot of wet mud, The Sunday Leader journalists were rudely taught that disaster management only happens on TV in Sri Lanka.

At the Palvilla earth slip site that buried 70 people including infants and 40 houses, there was only the air force that was digging up the dead - while boiling water on the side to make tea.

There were no other state officials of any authority other than the earlier mentioned police officers.

A vigil for the dead and the missing had begun near the disaster site now that the rains had lessened. Survivors lingered near the massive earth slip looking into the abyss as if calling for the dead .

A mother who had lost two of her children remained near the site looking for the bodies. As soon as a body was discovered, she ran to verify, ignoring the foul smell of decaying flesh.

When the body turned out be someone else's she turned away, sat back and began talking to herself, holding her youngest and only surviving child close by.

Words of despair

Talking to journalists, she mumbled that she was contemplating suicide and that it was her surviving child that was holding her back. Words of despair that hardly filtered down to Colombo.

Despite the tragedy, that has been repeated multi-fold across the country, she was left to her own devices with no state or private official near by to comfort her or assist her.

The young mother standing on her own was proof enough the need of the hour was not footage on TV of relief ships arriving at Galle but, warmth and care to those affected.

There were no health workers to take care of the mounting number of bodies, and no counselors to talk to the wide-eyed survivors standing at the edge of the massive pit - only lines of curious on-lookers, air force officers digging for the dead and PCs acting high and mighty.

"You know that used to be my sister's house," an old man told me, and all I could discern was a big black boulder.

The only relief that was getting through was at the bottom of the hill, where individuals and organisations kept arriving with cooked food and clothes. Typical of Sri Lankan mentality, some of the refugees were collecting anything that came by without any idea what was needed.

They were taking, well more like selecting, clothes off a car boot. Scenes from a flea market than from a disaster site. Even at the school that had been turned into a refugee centre  there were no trained professional workers aiding the civilians.

Emotional trauma

The mother looking for the body of her child would have to deal with the emotional trauma as well as the loss of everything she owned on her own.

At Dela on the Ratnapura- Kalawana Road, the picture was different but still similar. This time it was neglect.

The mountainside bordering the road had come down, but was held in its free flow by a row of houses and other buildings. And four days after the slide the buildings were holding the earth at bay. The structures looked eerily stable from the outside, most certainly from the road. A closer look however revealed  the back walls had caved in and cracks were all over the place - a matter of time till the earth took its course, and with it  the houses blocking off the main access road.

The neglect was such that no one had had a look at the row of buildings till The Sunday Leader team arrived. "Tell this in Colombo and tell them to stop here," a post-master at the post office which was being pushed from the rear by the sliding mountain said. We could tell the story but whether those who matter would care to listen, we could give no guarantee. Taking note of the dire circumstances we refrained from making the last wisecrack while inside the precariously perched post office.

The relief vehicles packed with officials kept hurtling down the road towards Kalawana - none bothered to stop.

Walking into Kolombugama was proof enough that hell had broken loose there. A river burst through the village and left 700 people scampering for life.

Nature gone berserk

There were signs all over the place that man-made structures were no match for nature gone berserk. Houses stood window frameless. Debris were stuck half way up coconut trees and residents leaped up to show the water level.

All the recoverable possessions were lying outside the houses on the road that ran through the village. People were hosing them or checking them to figure out if anything was worth keeping back. A large television lay on the road, made useless by the ravages of nature.

While a vehicle had survived inside a garage, others had not, with motorcycles being dragged along by the floods for miles.

Very few had visited Kolombugama since the access road was cut off by a mudslide. The villagers kept getting food and clothes but the road was still blocked and the information they needed most, not forthcoming.

Like most in Ratnapura, residents at Kolombugama depend on the gem industry. With the floods, they were anxious to figure out when and how they could get back to work.

Their fears were not helped by announcements by government agencies declaring various areas as prone to landslides - something no one ever did till a slide occurred.

There is but one reason for the floods, it rained and it rained long and hard. When the rains started coming down Rukmal Priyadarshana was asleep in a hut close to the gem mine he was working in. "I felt this sensation that water was lapping near my feet," he described the scene when he woke up around mid-night on Sunday.

Submerged in water

Everything around him was submerged in water and the hut was barely standing. Priyadarshana got out of the hut with his colleagues and ran home. When the floodwaters kept rising he tied the canoes at home to trees and reached higher ground. "When I came down, I no longer had a kitchen."

He described how people were stuck on trees, roofs and anything that was above the water level. "We were in the canoe when we saw a hand appearing through a roof. It was a woman, she had got stuck between the roof and the ceiling. It was crazy," Priyadarshana said.

People were aware of floods and kept canoes at home to meet such eventualities, but they never expected waters that reached up almost to the roof.

Rivers appeared where none ever were. The water was such that the Rakwana Ganga split the banks and created two new rivers. One flowed through Kolombugama and the other today is a new stream further down. It flows right through the location where before the rains, was a Rs. 6 million house.

"We now have to find a name for this," residents joked staring at the new river that had dragged huge boulders and hundred year old trees miles down.

If the rains and the floods were tragic yet unavoidable incidents, the same could not be said of the widespread landslides.

Take for example the situation at Palvilla. Most of the houses there evolved from unauthorised settlers who came in the late 1980s. As the numbers increased, various politicians handed out unofficial land deeds. When the entire hillside came sliding down 15 years later there were 180 houses on the hill.

During high rains there was a periodic stream that appeared on the hill, but residents never thought about a landslide that would swallow 40 houses and kill 70 people. "We were never warned of such things," said resident Norbert Chandrarathne who lost his house.

On the fateful day, the occupant of the house at the very top sensed that something was not right. The trees had gone pale and lifeless. He warned the others and quickly left the house. "We also left, but some others laughed the warning off and stayed back," Chandrarathne said.

A sad reminder of that tragic mistake is that the doorstep of the whistleblower is now a 500 foot precipice cum mass-grave.

In Ratnapura houses built cutting into mountain faces found that they could no longer hold back the earth and caved in. But no one ever prevented  such constructions or warned residents that they were back to the wall against danger.

Inadequate relief

It is in the face of such a calamity that the relief operations looked totally inadequate. There was no co-ordination at all.

Private organisations and individuals kept appearing with clothes, cooked food and dry rations. They were directed by a central office at the Prime Minister's Office in Colombo, but such guidance proved inadequate on the ground.

There were no officials from the government on the ground directing operations and stationed at affected spots. That meant disaster management  at  ground level was in the hands of untrained amateurs. The Sunday Leader witnessed only one doctor and several nurses, that too near Kolombugama. The doctor was in a shalwar-kameez checking out the general health situation.

It was only four days after the floods that top government officials held a meeting with local officials from Kolombugama. Even then no national level official had visited the village where 214 houses were affected. The village next door had 129 houses affected.

Local officials had taken a decision to allocate new land plots to those whose houses were totally destroyed. But the houses were going up on slopes...

At Palvilla some authority had ruled that the entire mountain face was at a landslide risk, meaning 500 families were told not to live in their houses. Fair enough, except, "no one told us where to go," residents - some of whom are unauthorised settlers remarked still standing on the mountain face.

All the while at Dela, the landslide was being held back by buildings.

While poorer segments of the displaced were quite happy to live off handouts others were not. People returning to their homes were not requesting food and clothing - they said that they needed fuel and accessible roads. That was not happening.

"They bring cooked rice from Polonnaruwa and when it gets here it is stale," Priyadarshana related the experience adding that his main need was candles.

When privately sponsored relief vehicles travel on the road, people stop them and request rations. More often than not the requests are accommodated. If the distributors could have looked at the stocked rations and cooked food in the hands of some of the civilians, they would no doubt have realised that some were pretty well stuffed.

Stinking mess

Ratnapura town itself was without electricity for the fourth day running when The Sunday Leader was in town, and was a stinking mess at places. Residents were complaining that there should be some restoration of power to sections that were safe and if authorities were so concerned about epidemics then the best solution was to clean up the mess.

The relief operation was a typical Sri Lankan mess. Helicopters kept hovering above while on the ground, there was no one to decide what was needed where. Though both the President and the Prime Minister had visited Ratnapura.

There was no way that the floods could have been avoided, but there  is much that could be done now and first on the list is to create a blue-print to manage such disasters in future.

Like the typical Sri Lankan mess, the typical Sri Lankan short memory syndrome would see to it that the 'worst floods in history' would be quickly forgotten. Except by those like the mother waiting for her daughter's body. For them at least the carnage was up close and personal.

  A mother's vigil

By Marianne David

The disaster at Ratnapura took away more than just homes and possessions. It took lives -  a large number of them. And while the bodies keep piling up, one is still missing.

In Palvilla, Indrani, a mother of three, was dealt a double blow. Of her three daughters, two were swept away in the floods that raged through the entire area last Sunday.

Fifteen year old Nadeesha Lakmali and 12 year old Anusha Shamali who went to a neighbour's house for a few minutes on that fateful day, were dragged away in the water to their death along with four others when the house in which they were in, was swept away.

"They asked their father whether they could go to the house nearby and since I was busy making some roti, the two of them went alone. I only had time to prepare three rotis when I realised that something had happened and rushed out looking for them," said Indrani.

"That's all the time it takes to lose life. In the time it takes to make three rotis my daughters were lost to us forever," she cried.

Indrani and her husband Sena, who is a labourer, had searched all over in vain, calling out until their voices were hoarse and there was no light to see by when they realised their daughters were gone.

Anguished

Unable to control her tears, Indrani wept saying, "We looked everywhere, screaming in the rain but we could not find them."

Anusha's body was found by a search party and buried on Tuesday, May 20, but Nadeesha, Indrani's eldest daughter is still missing. Anusha's body, however, was smashed and crumpled up, said Indrani, who was in shock and restless until Nadeesha was found as well.

"Anusha was in such a state that we couldn't keep her body even for a day so we wrapped her up in white cloth and buried her. There was nothing else we could do," said Indrani.

Distraught, she wanders around the rescue site walking through the mud, looking in vain for her eldest child's body while holding her youngest by the hand.

As the search for the bodies went on, villagers kept walking up to her and describing the bodies that were recovered.

"She was wearing a red shirt, is it my daughter?" Indrani asked those who came away from the rescue site.

While she has accepted that both her daughters are dead, she says that she should at least be given the chance of seeing her eldest daughter for one last time, to say goodbye.

Sena kept going up to the police personnel and asking them to help him find his daughter.

He was insistent that Indrani should come away from the place where the bodies were being recovered, but she could not be moved.

"How can I just go? I have to see my daughter. What's the point of living like this? I must see her for at least one last time," she said, her voice cracking, with grief. "I keep crying and crying and I can't even eat but they won't come back."

Her little daughter, Wathsala won't leave her mother's side and holding her, Indrani cries, "She is all I have left now."

"I don't mind if we all died and were swept away with our house. Why did my two daughters who studied so much have to die like this?" The two girls were studying in year 8 and year 10 in school.

"I want to die"

"Our house is fine and nothing has happened. We used to always go to the neighbour's house and stay there in the evenings, so my daughters went there as usual. I don't know why we weren't swept away with them," she cried explaining that she would have preferred it if her family was swept away together in their own house.

"The three of us should just drink something and die now that the other children are gone," Indrani says, adding that the only thing that stops her from committing suicide is being unable to poison her daughter.

"It's much better to drink something and die than to live like this. As a mother I can't bring myself to poison her otherwise we can all die. I am living because of her now," she said, turning towards the little girl who was looking around in fear.

Indrani and her husband have not gone back to their home yet, and are staying in a school because they can't bear to go back home, knowing they have lost two children.

"I want the three of us to go far, far away. I will only be able to live through this if we go away from this terrible place," says Indrani.

And as the search goes on, Indrani walks here and there wiping tears away, while her child hangs on to her hand as if it were a lifeline, when in reality it is little Wathsala who is keeping her mother from joining her lost daughters in death.

  Beyond the nightmare ...

By Marianne David and Trudy Fraser  

Looking at the two unscathed Vesak lanterns swaying gently in the breeze out front, it was hard to imagine that the weight of an entire mountain was bearing down upon this house in Dela.

It couldn't even be called a house anymore; it was just a few walls suffering ever-widening cracks as the mountain bore down upon them. The irony of it was that while an entire house was coming down, the fragile lanterns remained intact.

The young child standing in front of what used to be his house, smiling away for the camera, didn't even seem to realise exactly what had happened. But one look through the doorway, and all you could see were piles of mud and broken furniture.

Last week's landslides and floods left a devastating trail of destruction through Ratnapura and it is only now, as the waters slowly recede and the fallen earth is being swept away, that the extent of the damage can be seen.

Everywhere you looked were trucks full of disaster debris; wet and muddy broken furniture, parts of vehicles, ruined toys, clothes and school books. Shopkeepers wringing out water logged merchandise as mothers tearfully wiped the mud off cherished family photographs and tried to make some order out of the chaos while their children sat on doorsteps eating food from aid workers The destruction was total and indiscriminate.

Displaced families

Schools and temples were filled with displaced families who abandoned their houses after last week's storm. But now that the rains are ceasing, people are going back to their houses to try and rebuild  their lives.

In Kotamulla, Upali Weerasinghe and his wife Nanda were trying to get their house back in order but most of their possessions were gone. What remained was wet and broken, and the salvaged possessions were being dried in their front garden. A walk through the house and one could see how high the water had risen - almost to the ceiling.

Describing what happened Weerasinghe said, "The water kept rising and it suddenly flooded our house from both sides and everything was submerged. The damage we have faced is unaccountable - all that my wife and I possessed and worked for is gone."

As for the future, he says, "We will live day to day and eat if we get something otherwise we will be silent. What else can we do?"

While most of the people in Kotamulla said that the aid was getting through and they had enough to eat, what they sorely needed were things like kerosene, petrol, candles and soap.

Around 30 villagers had taken refuge in the upstairs of M. A. D. Jothipala's two-storeyed house. The grateful families were living in cramped conditions with all they owned and had no idea of when or if they might be able to return to their own homes.

Wimala and Kumudu were distraught, their house was ruined and the watermark was barely a foot below the ceiling. With a six-year-old child in the house, they were trying to get things together so that they would somehow be able to cook a meal. No easy task considering that their kitchen was destroyed and all their utensils had floated away.

"It took barely two hours for the water to fill our house completely and we are getting by with the help of our neighbours," said Wimala.

Flooded gem pits

"Even after this we don't know how we will live because the gem pits are flooded and we won't be able to work for over a month until the water recedes," said the villagers.

Priyantha, an O/L student, said that although schools were supposed to start on Wednesday, May 21, they did not open for obvious reasons. "Even if it had, we have no books or anything; everything is ruined. Even the things in the school are gone," he added.

"I have nothing, not even a chair left," said Alice Nona, whose entire house had collapsed right down to the ground.

In Palvilla, the grief is as high as the watermark. The route to the village is closed to vehicles, forcing people to ferry whatever possessions they have left by foot. But almost everything is gone.

Air force personnel were overseeing the excavations and keeping the peace as villagers scrambled in the mud looking for signs of missing loved ones.

What looked like nothing more than a muddy swamp is all that remains of about 35 houses and paddy fields. Every day, the surviving villagers gather to watch the few daring souls who brave the shaky improvised walkways over the mud in search of any signs of life.

Hope fading

But hope for the missing is fading fast. While we watched, a single body was hauled from the mud, but the state of decomposition in the swampy heat meant that there was no way of telling if it was man, woman or child.

"People are giving up," a villager said. "Even when we do find bodies they are in such a state that we have to bury them again straight away. It is hopeless."

"There are no people even to look for the bodies now, they have gone back to rebuild their homes," added another.

The mudslide has left a scar almost 30 metres across the side of the mountain and the lone house that stands but metres from the start of the devastation is the only remaining clue as to the  people who used to live and work on the hillside.

On the road to Palvilla, people were flocking around a car from which a man named Aruna from Maharagama was distributing clothes. "I have relatives in the area so I collected clothes from the neighbours and came here," he said.

In Pitulanda the water had receded and the people were slowly coming back home. "We get food parcels but what we need mostly now are things like soap, candles and kerosene. We have no clothes or things to cook with either. We don't even have mats to sleep on," said the villagers. "We are getting enough food but now we need help to build up our lives again."

In Sidurupitiya people had even taken to living in the village bus stand - it being the only refuge available. Beyond that, the road is blocked and one has to climb over a huge mudslide to get to the other side where total disaster welcomes you.

Kolombugama bears the scars of terrible tragedy. Ruined televisions, furniture and clothing littered the main street that is now little more than a muddy path.

"We are getting food and the things we need but our house is ruined and everything is gone," said Chandrasiri, while his wife and two children stood near the remnants of what was once their family home.

All over Ratnapura people are struggling to come to terms with the devastation that has visited upon their lives and it is obvious that the road to recovery is going to be long and tiring. The water may be gone but the crisis is far from over.

Contingency plan for police

Interior Minister John  Amaratunga whilst commending the police on a job well done in relief aid for the flood and landslide victims, admited that in  future police work related to emergency relief should be more organised.

In view of this the Minister has instructed  Inspector General of Police, T. E. Anandaraja to set up around eight to nine teams of specialist officers who have received overseas training in dealing with natural and man-made disasters.

"So that in the future these teams will be able to act promptly and go to the affected places where they would be able to instruct police officers on the best way to deal with the problem," said the Minister.

Amaratunga said the idea was to develop a central organisation where all the officers trained abroad and here were available and if and when a crisis occurs these officers would be able to lead the other police officers in doing relief work in an organised way.

The Minister has also drafted a contingency plan, which will be distributed to all police stations. "The idea behind is not to wait for a disaster to happen but to do the very best in monitoring and foreseeing if any man made or natural disasters are forthcoming," said the Minister.

The police will be asked to contact the Meteorology Department regularly, keeping track on calamities such as cyclones in the region. By doing this, the Minister said the police can take necessary precautions and even evacuate people beforehand if needed. According to the Minister this would enable post disaster relief work to be carried out in a much more organised manner. Equal distribution of relief amongst the affected was another point to be taken note of said the Minister.

The Minister also said that there will be development work that will go into months  and it is pointless to give the people just cement and other necessities. "These people should be provided help in putting up their houses and businesses. The police should assist the people and help them in all aspects of rebuilding their homes," said the Minister.

- S S

  Life in times of floods  

For N. K. Samantha and his wife Udayangani, May was supposed to be the happy month, with the arrival of their first child.

But they were in for a rude shock when the rains came. Their house in Deniyaya went under water and the frightened couple had  to relocate to a safe place.

That was when the air force helicopter spotted them. Disregarding normal procedure that prevents  taking in unauthorised passengers, the officers on board the chopper took the decision to ferry the pregnant Udayangani and her frightened husband to safety.

"This was not a normal case, we don't get pregnant women trapped in floods everyday," the officers told photographer Buddika Weerasinghe.

The flight itself was a ride out of hell for the young couple. A visibly uncomfortable Udayangani held onto her husband as the chopper swirled over disaster hit areas and landed to distribute supplies. Right through the journey Samantha was holding Udayangani.

"She was finding the noise unbearable and I thought at one point she had fainted," Weerasinghe later recounted. During the flight Udayangani had felt so dizzy that an old woman next to her had started to check her pulse.

The ordeal fortunately ended in relief for the couple when the chopper landed without any mishap in Matara.

The air force had arranged for an ambulance to pick up Udayangani and transport her to a hospital from Matara.

Man made death traps

By Shezna Shums

There are two major identifiable causes of landslides. They are the natural causes and the man made causes.

Natural causes for landslides would depend on the type of rock, natural patterns of drainage and the spread of soils or the soil thickness and also how steep the mountain or hill slope is.

Man made causes are improper land use on slopes where houses are constructed without proper engineering advice.

According to Kumari Weerasinghe, a scientist involved in landslide mapping at the National Building Research Organisation, vertical cuts are made on mountain slopes for houses to be constructed and what happens is that there is no support to this cut and eventually this cut fails resulting in a landslide.

There are also certain areas where the natural drainage system is destroyed when building houses. Cultivation is another practice that creates landslides.

"When water is supplied for cultivation without proper planning this causes  landslides as this obstructs the natural free flow of water and increases the fragmentation of rocks," she added.

Even growing certain types of vegetation contributes to soil erosion and eventually to landslides,  as  certain vegetation and roots loosen the soil in that particular area.

Agriculture patterns also contribute to landslides where ploughing of the soil in certain areas increases the probability of a landslide.

According to Deputy Director - Hydrology, Irrigation Department, P. C. Senaratne the increased population and increased development in the areas have resulted in more damage after last week's flood compared to the damage during the last major flood the country experienced in August, 1947.

Blasting of rocks and mining are other human activities that induce landslides

There are also instances when private roads are made without proper planning and this too affects the probability of landslides.

A sure  sign that indicates  the likelihood of a landslide is  when there are cracks on the ground that quickly widen. There can also be cracks on houses and walls that are quickly widening which are signs of earth movement.

Also when there are new springs and waterways opening up and the water is muddy, and even when existing springs suddenly dry up  also indicate  earth movement.

When trees and pillars suddenly tilt backwards or forwards is another sign, and also when rocks suddenly hurtle down unstable slopes; when roads begin to sink and bends begin to jut out are other obvious signs of earth movement. Even unusual behaviour from domesticated animals are warnings of a landslide.

The last time the country experienced a major flood was in August, 1947 where the Ratnapura District had 83 to 84 mm of rainfall. This figure is more than one and a half feet of water than the recent floods. Although the rainfall was higher then there was less damage at that time, as now there are more people and development in these areas.

At the time there was around 16 to 17 feet of water, which is a very significant figure stated Senaratne.

Colombo too experienced about 12.8 ft of water then.

However now there is a higher cost in regard to the cost of lives lost and property lost because of the increased population and development.

Navy's search for survivors

By Ranee Mohamed  

The middle aged mother was hitting at her chest in a frenzy. She had seen the waters come gushing forth and taken her eight year old son away. And now as the tears flowed, she was pleading with naval personnel to bring back her son. The roads had collapsed and movement was impossible.

"For two hours our divers looked for the child. But we could not find him," said Commander N. K. D. Nanayakkara, Commanding Officer of Dhakshina - the naval base in Galle.

There were distress calls from everywhere and the waters and the collapsed roads were making it impossible to reach  the trapped.  There were about 30 boats in operation including eight rubber flexible dinghies.

Up on a roof, a father was hugging his one and half year old child and crying. He called out to the naval team "My baby has fainted, please throw us a piece of bread." But Commander Nanayakkara and his team, including naval divers wanted to do much more than throw a piece of bread. Through the water they waded and climbed the wet roof gingerly and rescued the soaking father and his wet baby.

"Thereafter they began to beg us to look for the child's mother. She had gone out for a moment....and she never came back," said Commanding Officer Nanayakkara.

The Ging Ganga had flooded. And the naval teams found that even the crocodiles were now in the city and the suburbs - roaming freely underwater. "There were serpents in almost every bush and the team could not even touch some of the bushes," said the Commanding Officer.

The Wakwella bridge was falling - the logs had given away and there was no way that the Road Development Authority officials could make it to this point. Battling with the murky waters, it was the naval teams that set the bridge back on its tracks.

Trail of tears

As the water subsides, it leaves behind a trail of tears, remains of loved ones and unbearable losses of family members.

Imagine fellow human beings - losing their cosy beds, their clothes, their kitchens. Losing every item which they have cherished - those sentimental, those of monetary value, those certificates, school books, uniforms - losing everything that they owned and being reduced to refugee status in a matter of hours.

How will they rebuild? From where will they start again? When the waters ebb, we will find out the real losses - that is, how many mothers, fathers, and children died. How many brothers and sisters went away without a goodbye and how many have to live with the memories.

Flood relief pours in after PM's appeal

By Frederica Jansz

Still reeling from floods and landslides that killed over 260 people and displaced tens of thousands, last week the government continued to battle raging flood waters in the country's low lands while appealing for humanitarian aid.

Norway pledged US $ 1 million in aid while the United States committed US $ 50,000 after Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe appealed for help. India was the first to answer the Premier's call by sending a ship with a fleet of dinghies and medical supplies as well as Indian navy divers to assist in finding hundreds of people who remained missing even after the torrential rains eased and flood waters began to recede. India also donated 2500 blankets for flood victims.

The Saudi Arabian government donated tents to the value of Rs. 7 million. On Thursday, May, 22, Save the Children Fund donated as relief assistance to children Rs. 2.5 million.

 Local agencies also rushed to help flood victims and New Zealand Milk (Pvt) Ltd., donated 7,500 packets of Anchor milk and 5000 packets of Raththi milk powder. The Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation donated Rs. 2 million and Sri Lanka Distilleries made a donation of Rs. 1 million. Tokyo Cement Company Lanka Ltd., donated Rs. 1 million and Associated Motors 10 outboard motors. Prima Ceylon Ltd., sent 20 lorry loads of flour while the People's Bank donated 40,000 litres of drinking water bottles.

The National Council of Churches in Sri Lanka (NCCSL), reported that the organisation has been overwhelmed with requests for help.

 Tens of thousands of people fled to villages in the highlands, taking shelter in churches, schools, temples and mosques. Ratnapura, Galle and Matara were the towns most severely affected by the floods while places such as Deniyaya and Hiniduma remained still inaccessible. NCCSL's immediate response will target 2,200 families (Ratnapura - 700; Deniyaya - 400; Hiniduma - 300; Galle District - 400 and Matara District - 400). Relief assistance will include dry rations (e.g. rice, dhal, sugar, tea, flour and soap). Temporary toilets will also be provided, as will temporary shelters (cadjan sheds).

Hundreds missing

Meanwhile, NCCSL will request support from Indian member Church's Auxiliary for Social Action (CASA). Access to clean drinking water was one of the biggest problems as thousands of displaced people, who have been left homeless by the floodwaters, also need food and bedding. Damage to property is still being assessed, but the message is clear that major rehabilitation will be needed once the flood waters subside.

The government has appealed to organisations for help as rescue workers searched through devastated villages looking for survivors from the island's worst flooding since 1947. Minister Karu Jayasuriya heading the government's disaster management team told parliament last week that at least 500 people were still unaccounted for.

The Sri Lanka Air Force and Navy were called in to help with rescue operations while SLAF helicopters were used to drop food parcels to marooned people. The Meteorology Department warned people in low-lying areas that there could be more floods and landslides even though the rains were easing towards the end of last week.

No plans to meet challenge

The Department has forecasted more monsoon rains next month that could be equally devastating. Disaster Management Minister Sarath Chandra Rajakaruna when contacted had no information on the flood situation and no ready response when asked whether in the short time he has been in office if he had any plans to prevent disasters of this nature from occurring.

The process of restructuring and rehabilitation is enormous and the state had no plans yet on how it would meet this challenge. The government also had no available statistics on the damage caused to the agricultural sector which is one of the main sources of income for families in many of the flood affected areas. Four tea factories in the Ratnapura District were reportedly damaged as a result of the floods.

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The toll in figures

The recent floods have caused 265 deaths and rendered 176,028 families homeless in six districts up to Friday according to the office of the government spokesman. A total of  24,222 houses have been completely destroyed while another 26,251 houses have been partially destroyed.

 International community  hurries flood relief

The international community and major donor agencies have urgently dispatched food items, bottled water, school kits, tents and generators in large quantities to the flood victims of Sri Lanka.

World Food Programme (WFP) has sent 130,000 kgs of rice, 45,000 kgs of red lentils, 2,000 kgs of sugar worth a total of Rs. 220 million. These food items will be sent to the affected districts of Ratnapura, Galle, Matara, Kalutara and Hambantota.

Meanwhile the Untied Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has sent bottled water, mats, cooking pots, plastic buckets, school kits and drugs in large quantities which will be sent to Galle, Matara, and Kalutara Districts. Untied Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has sent packs containing milk food, soap, clothing etc. with each pack containing goods to the value of $50.  These will be sent to Ratnapura, the most affected district, while India has sent 2000 blankets and China has sent $ 30,000.  

Japan provides emergency assistance

In the meantime the Japanese government has donated emergency material worth 19.8 million (approx. Rs. 16.6 million) for the people affected by the extensive flooding. The emergency materials include tents, plastic sheets, polyester water tanks and portable electric generators and has been sent through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).  

Call for flood relief in Australia

The Sri Lanka High Commission in Australia has urgently appealed for relief and assistance for the flood and landslide victims in Sri Lanka.

A special fund has been set up for contributions to be made and has identified bottled water, milk foods, biscuits, clothing, and electricity generators among some of the essential items urgently needed.

Sri Lankans living in Australia have also organised cartons of essential items to be sent to the Disaster Management and Relief Office.

When appealing for aid, the High Commisioner also stressed that more long term assistance will be needed to reconstruct houses, assist in agricultural crops and animal husbandry, reconstruct damaged infrastructure and supply of medical facilities and equipment.

The Australia Sri Lanka Parliamentary Group has meanwhile pledged its support to Sri Lanka through the High Commission. The High Commission has also called on sections of the Australian media to assist in publishing appeals for aid.

The Australian government has pledged a sum of A$ 100,000 as relief assistance and the Parliamentary Office of Foreign Affairs has assured it would assist further once the full extent of damage is known.  

Denmark to provide food  worth Rs. 4 million

Responding to the crisis created by the uprecedented floods and landslides in the southern part of Sri Lanka, Denmark also has expressed its support.

The Royal Danish Embassy has agreed to follow up on the appeal of the School Services Ministry for rapid provision of food for affected people. The distribution of food packages and kitchen utensils valued at Rs. 4 million is due to be carried out by Sewa Lanka Foundation, mostly in the two districts of Galle and Hambantota.  

France pledges Rs. 2.5 million

The French government has offered financial aid equivalent to Rs. 2.5 million to help disaster victims in the flood affected areas. This aid will be made available through the Sri Lankan NGO, HUDEC-SEDEC which will in collaboration with the French NGO, CARITAS distribute immediate relief items including dry rations, clothes and medicines to help around 24, 000 people affected by the floods mainly in the Ratnapura area.  

 Task force for rehabilitation of  flood affected industries

The Industries Ministry has appointed a task force to formulate a rehabilitation programme for the small and medium industries affected by the recent floods.

This task force will identify the needs and problems faced by the small and medium industries in the affected districts of Ratnapura, Kalutara, Galle, Matara and Hambantota. Gathering of information in this regard has already commenced.

Based on the above information, a proposal will be prepared to assist the disaster stricken industries to get over the prevailing problems and make them viable again.

The following have been appointed by the Industries Ministry as members of the task force.

Secretary, Industries Ministry, Dr. U. Vidanapathirana (Chairman), Advisor, Industries Ministry, Sarath de Silva, Chairman, Board of Investment, Arjunna Mahendran, Chairperson, Bank of Ceylon, Sumi Munasinghe, Chairman, People's Bank, Lal Nanayakkara and Chairman, IDB Bandula Perera,(Secretary to the Task Force).  

Bank of Ceylon donates Rs. 5 million

Bank of Ceylon has provided Rs. 5 million in assistance and has offered to undertake many other relief projects including the supply of low interest loans for its flood affected business customers. Last week the bank's chairperson Sumi Munasinghe presented the cheque for Rs. 5 million to the government.

In addition to this the bank through its "Water and Welfare Fund" has appealed to all staff members to make cash donations which would be deductible from their salaries.

The bank offers low interest loans for businessmen who are customers of the bank, affected by the floods. The objective of this scheme is to help these businesses to tide over the difficult period and get re-started.  

Special loan advance to affected public servants

The government has decided to give a special interest free one month loan advance to all public servants in the Divisional Secretary Divisions of Ratnapura, Hambantota, Matara, Galle, and Kalutara Districts, which were affected by floods and earth slips during this month.

To apply for this loan advance an estimate of damage to the house or loss of personal effects, certified by the grama sevaka should be submitted. This loan will be an equivalent of one month's salary and will be deducted in 10 installments.

Public servants who are permanent employees will not need a guarantor, while those in temporary and relief services will need a guarantor when applying for this loan  

John Keells Group promises Rs. 3 million in aid

In the meantime John Keells Group has committed to an assistance package worth in excess of Rs. 3 million for the flood relief activities coordinated by both the Human Disaster Management Unit - President's Office and Social Welfare Ministry. The Group Chairman, Vivendra Lintotawela made this pledge to a committee appointed by him within the group to coordinate the programme with the relevant authorities.

The committee has identified the most urgent need, and as its prime focus, the provision of clean and safe drinking water to those affected. The next two stages of assistance will involve the providing of medicines, cooking utensils, clothes, and other necessary consumables, which will be packaged and distributed amongst the destitute. The next phase will identify and help people rebuild their homes and re-establish themselves once the flood waters subside by providing them with the most essential building materials. The John Keells Group has a large network of business contacts spread across the island, and the company spokesman said that, "this network of strong contacts will be utilised to the fullest in coordinating the proposed activities to bring relief."

Borella YMBA opens collection centre for donations

Borella YMBA has opened a collecting centre for public donations for the assistance of flood victims. Dry rations, medicines and clothes etc., will be accepted said Coordinating Officer, Borella YMBA, D.L.L. Weerakkody. Donations will be accepted upto 30 May he said.