An agency of the United Nations has termed “challenging” the identification of suitable locations for transitional shelter arrangements in the densely populated urban areas of Colombo and Gampaha districts to accommodate a section of flood-hit people.
In its first “situation report” which covered events up to May 22, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) mentioned that “a sizeable segment of the flood-affected population are squatters, living in vulnerable areas prone to frequent flooding. Therefore transitional shelter arrangements maybe required until suitable land is identified for relocation.”
According to the Sri Lanka government’s Disaster Management Centre on Monday afternoon, 506 houses were fully damaged and 4,005 – partially damaged. Colombo and Gampaha accounted for 32 fully damaged houses and 117 partially damaged ones.
1.23 lakh persons in camps
In Colombo, there are still about 1.23 lakh persons at relief camps and in Gampaha, nearly 46,000 persons.
As for people in landslip-hit areas, the OCHA pointed out that communities would not be able return to their places of origin because of “ongoing threat from further landslips. There is therefore a need for longer term alternative shelter options.”
In Aranayaka, where a major landslip took place a week ago, seven more bodies were recovered, taking the toll to 39 and the figure of the Kegalle district to 57. As of now, 92 persons died all over the country due to the latest round of natural disaster with 30 persons suffering injuries. The authorities put the figure of missing persons at 109. In a matter of 24 hours ending noon on Monday, about 51,000 persons left the relief camps and returned homes, bringing down the number of persons kept at the camps to around 1.86 lakh.
As for issues concerning general coordination, the U.N. agency felt that a massive influx of cooked food, non-food items and relief from the general public and private sector was noted in urban and rural areas affected by floods and landslips. “This has resulted in difficulties of crowd controlling, effective relief distribution and limited coordination of relief donation,” it added.
Singapore commits to $1,00,000 aid
Meanwhile, the Singapore government announced that it would contribute $ 1,00,000 in support of immediate relief efforts in Sri Lanka and the funds would be channeled through the Singapore Red Cross. The U.S. government would provide $ 2, 50,000 additionally to support flood relief efforts, taking its immediate and near-term relief assistance to $ 1.3 million.
Sri Lanka’s Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake was quoted in a local daily as saying that the previous week’s storm cost the country $ two billion.
