BATTICALOA, Sri Lanka — The Sri Lankan military
and aid agencies struggled Thursday to bring
relief to a million people displaced by floods that
have claimed nearly 30 lives and devastated the
island's rice bowl.
Even as torrential rains eased overnight to bring
some temporary respite, the number of people
seeking protection in state-run shelters swelled to
nearly 400,000, the state Disaster Management
Centre (DMC) said.
The centre put the official death toll at 27. The
floods were triggered by week-long rains across
northern, central and eastern Sri Lanka that forced
more than a million local residents to flee their
homes.
Some 3,000 soldiers have been deployed in the
worst-affected regions, along with trucks and air
force helicopters, as UN convoys have struggled
to bring crucial supplies in by road.
A large number of those forced out of their
homes had only recently been resettled after
decades of ethnic conflict between Tamil Tiger
rebels and government forces.
"Many families were just returning home after
years of displacement," said Reza Hossaini,
country representative for the UN children's
agency, UNICEF.
"They were rebuilding their lives, children were
returning to their community schools and now
they all face this latest severe setback," Hossaini
said.
Seven trucks loaded with UNICEF supplies,
including water tanks, tarpaulins, chlorine tablets,
sleeping mats and cooking gear, managed to
reach the eastern districts of Ampara and
Batticaloa late Thursday.
Residents of Batticaloa, a major rice-growing
area, said it was the worst flooding in living
memory.
"I have never seen anything like this before," said
farmer H.A.D. Jinadasa. "It will take months to
recover. I have lost everything, my fields and
farm machinery."
S. Kokulan, a village official who had turned a
local school into a welfare centre, said more than
3,000 people had come looking for help and
shelter, although the school building was itself
partially flooded.
"The men come for meals and then go back to
look after their houses. As the waters go down,
people are scared of looting," Kokulan said.
The region witnessed intense fighting during the
separatist conflict which came to an end in May
2009, and was also devastated in the December
2004 tsunami.
Sections of the main road leading to Batticaloa
from Colombo, a distance of 300 kilometres (187
miles), were still submerged, allowing only heavy
weather vehicles with a high ground-clearance to
get through.
"The water levels have begun to go down, but
the number of people moving to state-run relief
camps is going up," a DMC spokesman said,
adding that more than 630 camps were up and
running.
President Mahinda Rajapakse told reporters in
Colombo that they were still estimating the extent
of the damage, with the agricultural ministry
suggesting that that nearly 20 percent of the
country's rice farms had been flooded.
"We are not sparing any costs," the president
said. "The relief operations are going ahead and I
have told the officials to ensure that there are no
delays in distributing aid."
Sri Lanka depends on monsoon rains for
irrigation and power generation, but the seasonal
downpours frequently cause death and property
damage in low-lying areas as well as
mountainous regions.
The island's two main monsoon seasons run
from May to September and December to
February.
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