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Flash floods that affected 418,000 people and left 23 dead and four missing this week in western Sri Lanka could have been avoided with proper water retention schemes, government irrigation engineers told IRIN.

Floods caused by the onset of the southwestern monsoon on 2 and 3 June affected more than 94,000 families in nine districts in the western lowlands, GM Gunewardena, assistant director at the National Disaster Relief Service Centre (NDRSC), told IRIN.

[Motorists wade through a flooded street near Colombo in the aftermath of two days of torrential rains in western Sri Lanka in May 2007]

“The worst-hit area has been the Kalutara District, where over 150,000 people have been affected in some of the low-lying areas close to rivers,” he said.

Deaths and disappearances

According to a joint situation report released by the government and the Inter Agency Standing Committee (IASC) on 4 June, 12 of the 23 deaths and three of the four flood-related disappearances were reported from southwestern Kalutara district.

Engineers at the Irrigation Department of Sri Lanka, which monitors floods, told IRIN the low-lying areas of Kalutara and other adjoining districts were submerged because they were in the flood basins of rivers that burst their banks after heavy rains.

“The rivers run down steep slopes in the hills, so water gains speed,” BK Jayasundera, senior deputy director at the Irrigation Department in charge of flood protection, told IRIN. “On the low-lying areas there is less [of a] slope and when there are heavy rains the water rushes down,” he said. “Unfortunately these areas have also become over-populated.”

Other rivers pose threat

He warned that several other rivers flowing down the southern and southwestern slopes of the central hills posed the same threat to low-lying areas.

Jayasundera said the best option to reduce flooding in downstream areas was to build dams to retain the water upstream and release it gradually. “They could also help agriculture [irrigation] and power generation.”

Two other flood protection schemes – the construction of pumping stations and of concrete walls along river banks – had been largely ineffective. “The pumping stations are very costly and when the waters swell, the walls are of little help,” he said.

Officials at the Meteorological Department said these recent rainfall patterns were becoming more frequent. “This is what we predicted just before the monsoon set in,” SH Kariyawasam, deputy director at the department told IRIN. “Between June and July the western slopes of the central hills get heavy rains.”

Flash floods

Flash floods have become a regular occurrence in Sri Lanka, especially during the onset of the monsoons, and at least six have been recorded since April 2007, Irrigation Department officials said.

“It is a combination of natural causes and man-made factors that trigger these floods, and they are very hard to control in populated, urban areas,” HP Somasiri, the director-general of the Irrigation Department, said.

Floods in 2007 affected 488,000 people, killed 20 and damaged 9,800 homes, according to statistics maintained by the NDRSC.

[Heavy rains in eastern Sri Lanka led to heavy flooding in late December 2007 and the temporary displacement of some 250,000 people-photo: Amantha Perera]

Over Rs159 million (around US$1.4million) was spent on relief and reconstruction following the 2007 floods, the centre said.

Soon after flooding was reported this week, the Sri Lankan government released Rs29 million ($270,000) and appealed for assistance from UN agencies and other humanitarian agencies.

The World Food Programme (WFP) released 98 metric tonnes of rice, pulses and cooking oil, sufficient for 50,000 persons for a week, and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) contributed three tonnes of high protein biscuits, a joint statement by the Sri Lankan Government and ISAC said on 2 June.

“UNDP has hired a number of vehicles in the affected districts and UN Volunteers have been deployed to support efforts on the ground,” the statement said. “The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs is considering the release of an emergency cash grant for immediate non-food needs.”

Officials at the Irrigation Department say such funds and resources should be readily available on a routine basis to support flood relief and reconstruction efforts, unless proper mitigation measures are taken.

“There are very few options open. You can try to move out hundreds of thousands of people from the downstream areas, which would not be very easy,” Jayasundera said, “or you can think of retaining water upstream and releasing it gradually.”

Report by United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs – Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN)

Sri Lankan flood victims-Reuters News Video:

Report by United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs-Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN):

Tharmalingam Sudarshan, a farmer, returned to his home in Vavunathivu town, Batticaloa District, in eastern Sri Lanka in July 2007, having fled the area for three months due to conflict between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and government forces. He found his house destroyed by elephants, his belongings looted and his farmland fallow.

A UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) project helped him test the soil to choose the best crops and provided him with seeds and fertiliser. The new crops have just come in and are keeping his family fed and providing a small profit from the sale of the surplus, as well as giving him a stock of seeds for the next harvest.

“I have been working hard to cultivate my land,” Sudarshan said, “and that has kept my mind off my worries.”

[Sri Lankan women carry baskets of peanuts grown with seeds provided by FAO]

For thousands of Sri Lankans such as Sudarshan, the return home after months in welfare camps can be traumatic when they discover their livelihoods lost, houses damaged or destroyed and possessions looted, and are left with little or no resources to restore their shattered lives, said FAO’s National Project Officer (Agriculture) Thevarajah Vaigunthan.

Some 42,000 families in the eastern Batticaloa District were displaced in March 2007 and 140,000 in all from August 2006.

Targeting farmers and fishermen

With the government promoting the return of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Batticaloa, some UN agencies and other aid organisations are focusing on livelihood projects that can give returnee families a source of food and income.

Two projects initiated by the FAO and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) target farmers and fishermen and hold out hope of long-term benefit to some 6,000 people who fled their homes last year.

Under a US $44,390 project funded by Spain, the FAO began in March 2008 providing seed paddy, pulse grains, vegetable seed, fertiliser and poultry to 5,265 farmers in Batticaloa West in Batticaloa District and Eachchilampattu in Trincomalee District.

“We had a high demand from returnees and the project did not have enough funds to cover everyone who was in need. But at least we have made a start,” said FAO’s Vaigunthan.

The agency targets small farmers rather than large landowners, and is helping them to produce enough food for their families and, perhaps, even a small surplus. Restoring livelihoods has also been a valuable coping mechanism during a tough period when their incomes were often non-existent and obtaining sufficient food was a challenge, Vaigunthan said.

Technical assistance

Technical assistance is given by FAO to improve agricultural techniques, ascertain the best crops to plant and keeping poultry. FAO also provides seeds and pesticides.

The ICRC runs a complementary project for fishermen. The $95,592 project stocked four freshwater reservoirs in Batticaloa District in 2008 with 400,000 fingerlings of seven types of fish.

As the fish grow and spawn, the objective is to get more than 480 fishermen back to work in Vaharai and Pattipalai towns in Batticaloa District.

Sellan Thangeswaran, who is engaged in fresh water and lagoon fishing, fled an upsurge in violence in 2006 and returned to his home in Mathurankernikulam town in April 2007.

[A Sri Lankan returnee farmer carrying snake gourd vegetables]

“Before I was displaced, I was able to support my wife and daughter with the earnings I took home from fishing. Being displaced changed my life because I lost everything I had used for my fishing activities.” He said he had received assistance from several humanitarian agencies. “I was able to buy a net and start fishing again,” Thangeswaran said, although, “I will not be able to fish from the reservoir for a while, until the newly introduced fingerlings have time to grow”. Nonetheless, he said, “I am hopeful for the future.”

The beneficiaries will start fishing in the four reservoirs six months after the restocking, said Massimiliano Cartura, the economic security delegate of the ICRC office in Batticaloa District. The FAO has distributed 128 canoes and 481 kits with three different types of nets so that the fishermen can operate in other water sources in the interim.

“Their economic situation should start to improve immediately because of the donation of technical equipment, but, of course, the peak will be reached when the reservoirs are ready to be harvested,” Cartura told IRIN.

Under the ICRC project, the government’s Fisheries Department also trained 90 people in making and maintaining nets and in the theoretical aspects of freshwater fishing to help the community fish without damaging eco-systems or stock levels.

After provincial elections in Sri Lanka’s Eastern region concluded on 10 May, some economic recovery and increased assistance from the humanitarian community is likely, according to UN and other officials.

Much of the Eastern Province, which includes Batticaloa, Ampara and Trincomalee districts, was devastated by fighting in 2006-2007 between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the government, with hundreds of thousands of people displaced and homes and livelihoods destroyed. Most of the displaced have returned to their villages in the past year.

[Sri Lankans exercised their right to vote for the first time in 15 years in the March and May elections in eastern Sri Lanka]

The ruling United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA), running against the main opposition parties, the United National Party, the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, and the People’s Liberation Front, secured the Provincial Council by winning 20 of the 37 seats, although some observers and opposition parties claim the election was marred by irregularities and intimidation.

“The new civil administration structure now in place could provide the stage for programmes that would allow the people to return to their normal lives and regain lost livelihoods,” Zola Dowell, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Sri Lanka, told IRIN.

“The elections could also become the start for the return of more stability in the region,” she said.

Confidence

A functional, regional administrative structure, the first of its kind in more than 15 years, would also see a shift from the focus on humanitarian work to large-scale, long-term development work, if it can win the confidence of donors and financial institutions, aid officials said.

“Despite the criticism of its conduct, the poll is now over and we could see large development banks and others like UN agencies committing to development projects now that there is a proper system and probably more security,” Joergen Kristensen, country director of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), an NGO working in the province, told IRIN.

[Despite the elections, security is still very tight throughout the Eastern Province]

President Mahinda Rajapakse termed the electoral victory an endorsement of government policies and pledged to press ahead with development work.

“I look forward to their [the elected members'] cooperation in the country’s march to strengthen and widen democracy throughout our country, and to assisting in the tasks already initiated and ahead to develop the Eastern Province,” he said in a statement soon after the election results were announced.

The government gained full control of the province in July 2007 and first held elections for local government bodies in Batticaloa District in March 2008, followed by the weekend poll.

Returnees at risk

More than 124,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) in Eastern Province (see map in PDF format) have returned to their villages as of April 2008, according to OCHA. It said 108,000 of the returnees were in Batticaloa District alone, although some 30,000 still remained in the province.

NRC’s Kristensen cautioned that before moving into large development work, the return of all IDPs in the province should be completed.

“Some of these people have been displaced since 2006,” Kristensen told IRIN. “They have been unable to return home due to a variety of reasons, including the setting-up of high security zones in their former villages … we hope that the authorities take their cases on a priority basis now that there is hope for more stability.”

[Some 30,000 displaced people have yet to be resettled in the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka. They live in poor conditions in welfare camps and with host families-photos by Amantha Perera]

In addition, the World Food Programme (WFP) found that 62 percent of returnees in Trincomalee District had limited income opportunities, raising concern about their food security.

“Sixty-four percent [in the district] are food insecure . . . and 62 percent are at risk to livelihoods due to food insecurity combined with livelihood affecting coping mechanisms,” WFP stated in a report, Emergency Food Security Assessment Trincomalee, Sri Lanka, released in March 2008.

In a similar study of Batticaloa District in November 2007, WFP found that 36 percent of the surveyed returnees faced such problems.

Some people who witnessed the elections suggest a climate for redevelopment exists but the population needs to wait to see just how the new Provincial Council will proceed.

“There is an opportunity to work for the benefit of the people who have gone through hell, but a lot will depend on how the government and the elected members, especially those in control of the provincial government, handle their new-found power,” Sunanda Deshapriya, an election monitor in Batticaloa for the Colombo-based Centre for Monitoring Election Violence, told IRIN.

[Report by United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs - Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN)]

The Karuna faction, the Tamil Tiger breakaway group, which has been transforming itself from an armed military group into a political party, released 39 underage recruits in April 2008.

The group, officially known as the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pullikal (TMVP), released 28 children on 24 April after 11 were let go on 11 April.

The TMVP was formed by the former eastern military commander of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Vinayagamurthi Muralitharan, alias Karuna, after he broke away from the Tigers in April 2004. It now controls all nine local governing divisions in its native Batticaloa District in eastern Sri Lanka following a clean sweep in elections on 10 March, and is contesting the Eastern Provincial Council election on 10 May as a coalition partner of the ruling United People’s Freedom Alliance.

[Two boys in Batticaloa District - not soldiering now or ever - they hope-Photo: Amantha Perera/IRIN]

The TMVP is now led by Karuna’s chief lieutenant Sivasuntharai Chandrakanthan, alias Pillayan, the party’s candidate for the chief minister of the province, who has taken pains to rehabilitate the party’s image.

In addition to the release of children into a government-led rehabilitation programme supported by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), it has restricted its armed members to camps in the interior forests in the eastern province or inside its compounds in more populated areas and they no longer travel in public carrying arms.

The TMVP told IRIN it had voluntarily decided to release the children, who it said had sought protection. “We never gave these children armed training; they came to us for protection,” TMVP spokesperson Azad Moulana told IRIN. “There were 48 children under the age of 16 with us and we have released 39 so far. We will release the rest before the [10 May] election,” he said.

However, according to a UNICEF database, 76 recruits younger than 18 are still with the TMVP, down from 131 at end-March.

UNICEF has intensified its monitoring mechanism recently, according to the agency’s officials in Colombo. UNICEF officials personally visited and interviewed families of child recruits remaining with the TMVP to verify each case.

“We absolutely verified every single case in the books by visiting the families,” Gordon Weiss, UNICEF chief of communications in Sri Lanka, said.

“A year back there was a lot of fighting [in the east] and families reported their children being forcibly recruited,” Weiss said. “Now there is no fighting and our hope is that there is a genuine change in policy by the TMVP on child recruitment.”

Chandrakanthan had told campaign meetings the party would not engage in underage recruitment.

The Sri Lankan government welcomed the releases, the largest by the group, as a clear sign of the return of the rule of law to the east. “The government views the release of these children as further signs of the strengthening of democracy and return to conditions of normality in areas of the Eastern Province,” the Ministry of Human Rights and Disaster Management stated.

“The government, as part of its zero-tolerance policy on the recruitment of children for use in armed conflict, has taken steps to secure the release and initiate programmes of rehabilitation for children caught up in armed conflict.”

[Source: United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs - Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN)]

Intensified fighting in recent months in Sri Lanka’s restive northwestern Mannar District has forced more than 16,000 people to flee to safe areas within the region.

In light of this, A Nicholasspillai, the government agent for Mannar, told IRIN he had made contingency plans for up to 25,000 additional IDPs fleeing the clashes between government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the district, while government military spokesman Brig Udaya Nanayakkara also expected additional civilians to flee to government-controlled areas in the district.

“There are 40,000 people registered as living in the Manthai West division [an LTTE-controlled area] where fighting is intense,” Nicholasspillai told IRIN. “Most of them have already moved out of the [immediate] areas where the fighting is taking place, but if the clashes continue and they move further north, they will have no other option but to flee to government areas.”

[Displaced residents in Mannar district living in temporary shelters have had little assistance because of stringent security checks at government checkpoints-Pic: Rukshan Fernando]

Fighting has been continuous along the line of control in Mannar District since December 2007, with government forces trying to dislodge the Tamil Tigers from their frontline positions.

The conflict has also threatened Madhu church and its prominent 500-year-old statue, Our Lady of Madhu. Clashes close to the church prompted Catholic authorities to relocate the statue and key artifacts and documents. “Our Lady of Madhu [statue] has become a refugee in her own land for the first time,” the Catholic bishop for the district, Rev Rayappu Jospeh, said.

Access limited

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), there were 23,000 IDPs in Mannar District by end-March. Most of the displaced – 16,700 – remained in the Manthai West division, under the control of the Tigers. No access is available to the division through government-controlled areas in Mannar due to the fighting. Humanitarian agencies have had to reach the displaced through the Tiger-controlled Kilinochchi District.

UN agencies have reported that security and access restrictions have affected their ability to provide medical assistance to those displaced in Manthai West.

“[The UN Children's Fund] UNICEF reports that due to ongoing military operations, Public Health Midwives (PHM) have returned to Mannar and only one [government] medical officer and three PHMs are covering the whole of Manthai West,” the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (ISAC) stated in its latest situation report released on 12 April.

“Approval for transportation of Tri-posa [a children's nutritional supplement] and Corn Soya Blend to Manthai West is pending. In 2007, only three of the 12 months’ supplies were transported,” it said.

Checkpoint delays

Nicholasspillai said strict security measures had also delayed supplies to government-controlled areas of the district. “Access continues to be problematic due to the checkpoints.”

All vehicles proceeding to Mannar undergo rigorous screening by government security forces at Madavachchiya, 90km from Mannar, where supplies are unloaded and reloaded into vehicles.

“That takes a considerable amount of time and there are other checkpoints on the road to Mannar,” Rukshan Fernando, coordinator for the human rights in conflict programme at the Law and Society Trust (LST), a Colombo-based rights advocacy group, told IRIN.

Sri Lankan military authorities told IRIN they were not denying anyone entry into Mannar but were taking precautions to prevent attacks by the Tamil Tigers. “We have not restricted anyone, but the usual strict checking is in place,” Nanayakkara said. “We have to be responsible for the safety of everyone.”

[Some of the displaced people in Mannar District. Fleeing fighting, the majority of the 16,700 IDPs remain in the Manatai West division, under the control of the Tigers]

Nicholasspillai said humanitarian agencies were also awaiting clarification from security authorities regarding the status of a new IDP centre at Kalamoddai, which is sheltering about 200 people in temporary shelters. Nicholasspillai said more IDPs were expected to arrive there. So far, the humanitarian community had limited its assistance to the provision of emergency supplies, he said.

Nanayakkara said: “We plan to set up more sites as the number of people fleeing the Tiger areas increases.”

[Reported by United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs - Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN)]

A poor rice harvest, rising global food prices and the enduring conflict are increasing food insecurity for hundreds of thousands of Sri Lankans, UN food experts have warned.

Only half the country’s 20 million people are receiving the minimum daily calorie intake of 2,030, according to the latest poverty assessments compiled by the government.

“An average poor person in Sri Lanka receives only 1,696 kcal per day while a non-poor person receives 2,194 kcal,” according to the Department of Census and Statistics, in a report entitled Poverty Indicators – Household Income and Expenditure Survey – 2006/07, released in March 2008.

Officials at the UN World Food Programme (WFP) told IRIN that high levels of under-nourishment prevail, especially in rural areas and those regions in the north and east affected by more than 25 years of conflict.

An internally displaced family in Batticaloa District shares a meal-Photo: Amantha Perera/IRIN

“The highest rates of under-nourishment are in the north and east as well as parts of the dry zone towards the centre of the island,” Jean-Yves Lequime, the deputy head of WFP in Sri Lanka, said.

“Our information shows that these areas are some of the poorest on the island, with very high under-nutrition rates, poor education levels and poor sanitation, all of which contribute to under-nutrition,” Lequime said.

Poverty and high energy requirements were also common in the rural agrarian areas, Gordon Weiss, chief of communications at the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Colombo, the capital, told IRIN. “Especially in the agricultural areas, they engage with heavy work, so they need more calories. Most of the agricultural-based areas are considered poor areas.”

Child nutrition

“Sri Lanka has a significantly higher child underweight rate than would be expected on the basis of its (annual) per capita GDP (of US$1,599),” Lequime said. “Indeed, Sri Lanka has a child underweight rate that may be three times as high as what would be expected from a country with Sri Lanka’s level of infant mortality.”

UNICEF said 14 percent of children under five in Sri Lanka showed signs of wasting (acute underweight) and stunting (chronic underweight) while 29 percent of children younger than five were underweight for their age.

However, districts that have been affected by conflict record even higher rates, according to UNICEF’s Weiss.

WFP said the continuing conflict between government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) had also raised concerns regarding overall food security and nutrition levels in the conflict zone.

“Food insecurity levels are high in areas affected by the conflict, according to the Integrated Food Security and Humanitarian Phase Classification conducted by WFP in April 2007,” Lequime said. “Kilinochchi, Mullaitivu, Trincomalee, Mannar and parts of Vavuniya (districts) are classified as acute food and livelihood crises. Jaffna and Batticaloa are classified as a humanitarian emergency.”

There are also fears that national nutritional levels will deteriorate further due to rising food prices caused by inflation running at a record high of 17.5 percent, the WFP official said.

“Heavy unseasonal rainfall over much of Sri Lanka, including the conflict-affected areas, has destroyed much of the main ‘Maha’ rice harvest, which when combined with global price rises and food shortages may indicate major problems for the future,” according to Lequime.

Source: United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs-Integrated Regional Information Networks [IRIN]