India and Japan on Saturday handed over relief materials to Sri Lanka, which is inching back to normality after floods and a landslide hit parts of the country. .
According to a report by the Disaster Management Centre, the death toll rose to 73. Four more bodies were recovered from Aranayaka in Kegalle, where the landslide took place.
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At least 127 people are reported missing. With the improvement in the overall situation, the number of affected people went down to 3.46 lakh on Saturday evening, from 4.27 lakh on Friday afternoon. At the Colombo Port and the Kattunayake airport, India’s High Commissioner Y.K. Sinha formally handed over the materials, weighing over 80 tonnes, to Harsha de Silva, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Anura Priyadarshana Yapa, Minister of Disaster Management.
The materials, which included 700 tents, 1,000 tarpaulin sheets, 10 electric generators, 100 emergency lamps and medication against epidemics for 10,000 people, were transported through two Indian Navy ships (INS Sutlej and INS Sunayna) and C-17 aircraft.
At another event at the Ministry of Disaster Management, Kenichi Suganuma, Ambassador of Japan, presented goods worth about Rs. 32 million to Mr. Yapa.
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The materials were flown in from the warehouse of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in Singapore. Two JICA experts on disaster management would visit Colombo shortly to hold discussion with the Sri Lankan authorities.
The government of Japan would continue to provide assistance in the field of disaster risk reduction, a release issued by the Embassy of Japan said.
The U.S. government has provided $50,000 towards non-food items. Also, the U.S. Embassy in Colombo, in coordination with the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, is working on plans to support a three-year programme of $1 million designed to provide safe, disaster-resilient, drinking water to people who are highly vulnerable to floods and droughts, a release said.
The Red Cross Society of China has donated $50,000 to the Sri Lanka Red Cross Society in support of relief and rebuilding efforts.