3rd March 2005
Akkaraipattu, Sri Lanka
1st March 05
Dear Friends,
Greetings from hot and getting hotter Sri Lanka. It’s now just over 2 months since the tsunami hit and time to give you another update on what is happening. Well, the answer – at least here in the east of the country – is not much. Nearly 100,000 tsunami affected people are living in camps with little or no idea of what the future holds for them. Yes, they do have shelter in temporary huts or tents; they are receiving food and have access to water and medical care but are not yet in a position to start re-building their lives. No permanent house building has yet been started and, until you now where you are going to live and when it will be, it’s difficult to plan for the future. The main problem has been with the government.
Not unreasonably, a state of emergency was declared in the tsunami affected areas which meant that among other things, local government powers over housing and zoning were taken over by central government in Colombo. Since then we have been waiting for a government decision on re-building policy. On 27th February it announced that no rebuilding of housing would be allowed within a buffer zone of 100m of high water line in the south and within 200m in the north and east. This decision seems to have been taken without much consultation and neither has it been explained why there is a blanket ban regardless of topography or why the zone is less in the south than in the north and east. It’s not surprising that people are angry about this particularly the fishing communities who will need to be relocated near to the sea to resume work. But the above only applies to housing.
Undamaged hotels can remain in the zone and damaged hotels can be repaired providing cost of repair is less than 40% of replacement value. Further, hotels under construction within the buffer zone and not damaged by the tsunami can be completed. If the buffer zone is intended to safeguard lives in the event of another tsunami, this decision seems to suggest that the lives of tourists are of less importance so be warned. But at least a decision has been made and, once land is found and allocated, re-placement of housing stock can start. All the major international relief agencies are ready to start on this. People not allowed to rebuild within the zone will be provided with a house of at least 500 sq ft (20ft x 25ft). Owners of damaged houses outside of the zone will receive a grant of between 100,000 Rs (£500) and 250,000 Rs (£1250) towards repair.
As reported before, little clearing up has been done in the east and what little there has seems to be done by the people themselves. All in all, the government hasn’t come out of all this with much credit and its failure to implement most of the impressive proposals that were presented to international donors is at best an embarrassment. It is saddening to report that violent incidents have restarted. Recently we had the killing of the eastern political leader of the Tamil Tigers together with 3 rebel soldiers and a Tamil politician. Last evening here in Akkaraipattu, 3 female Tigers were ambushed and shot whilst returning from work at a relief camp. All 3 are in a critical condition and not expected to survive. No one has claimed responsibility for the incident and it is likely that we will never know who organised it. To be fair to the President, she has initiated talks with the Tamil Tigers trying to set up joint mechanisms for tsunami relief in the north and east hopefully leading on to a resumption of peace talks. (Although a ceasefire exists, technically, the country is still at war with no peace agreement having yet been signed). Unfortunately the party she leads does not have an absolute majority in parliament and her coalition partners the JVP (extreme nationalists) and the JHU (Buddhist monks) – are both vehemently against talking to the Tigers and scupper every proposal she makes.
Nazza and I have now finished working with the UN in helping to run the co-ordination and information centre as permanent staff have been appointed. But as the 4 local organisations we work with are all engaged in relief work in partnership with international NGOs, we ourselves remain involved. We also have our (and your) fund to administer and we have completed the 1st small project. All girls go to school in white dresses and senior boys in white shirt and trousers. Junior boys wear white shirts and blue shorts.
In nearby Kannaki Puram camp, UNICEF had supplied enough material to outfit the 65 children of school age living there. But the parents didn’t have the facilities or money to have the material made up into clothes so we arranged to have this done by local tailors/dressmakers. The kids now go to school in uniform rather than in whatever clothes had been donated. A small step in helping to restore normality. We are now researching a second project concerning the rebuilding and regeneration of a local handloom weaving co-operative. This will employ approx 275 people mostly women thereby supporting about 100 families. This project, if it comes to fruition, will be in the Muslim area so we must search out a project involving Tamils in order to maintain a balance.
On a personal level, I’m keenly looking forward to the visit of daughter Anna and boyfriend arriving in Sri Lanka on the 14th March. As well as visiting the tsunami affected areas I hope to enjoy showing them some of the wonders and beauty of this country.
John