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| Saturday, 14 June 2003 |
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The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) will soon launch an appeal for donor assistance for emergency relief and recovery programme for the people affected by the recent floods and landslides. The proposed four month operation is expected to commence by mid-June and will entail some 10,600 tons of food at a value of little over $ 3.5 million and benefit a total of 208,000 people in the district of Klutara, Galle, Matara, Ratnapura and Hambantota, states a press release issued by the Untied Nations Information Centre. The main objective of the recovery program is to assist affected families to restore/clean up their lands, repair their homes and find alternative sources of income to improve their food security situation. A second objective is to restore damaged rural infrastructure such as rural roads, irrigation schemes, and so forth, so that normal economic activities could be resumed - especially in light of the approaching Maha season. According to a joint WFP-FAO assessment mission, out of the total of 139,000 families affected by the recent natural disaster, some 48,000 families will need food assistance during the short-term period required to restore their homes and livelihoods. Of these, 40,000 families will receive relief assistance while the remaining 8,000 will participate in rehabilitation activities under food-for-work schemes. These food-for-work activities will be supported by the FAO with supplementary inputs such as seeds and fertilisers for the up coming Maha season. Under the emergency relief and recovery program, family dry rations would consist of rice, pulses, and sugar and the estimated total quantity would be 10,640 tons of commodities for this 4-month operation. The WFP also provided rice, pulses, sugar and canned fish worth for the flood victims in the affected districts, immediately after the disaster struck in May, in response to an appeal made by the Government of Sri Lanka. This immediate response (valued at Rs. 70 million) provided life sustaining good for about 100,000 families during the first critical week after the disaster struck. As the largest single source of multilateral food aid the WFP provides food assistance to more than 75 million persons in 82 countries around the world through emergency relief operations, long-term relief and recovery operations and development projects. The WFP's co-operation in Sri Lanka started in 1968 and during the last 35 years, has provided food assistance to support 32 development projects and 21 emergency operations at a total cost of US $ 200 million. |
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