Permanent housing for tsunami displaced

by Rajmi Manatunga

The Government will provide permanent housing to all Sri Lankans displaced by the tsunami by April 2006.

Chief Executive Officer of the Tsunami Housing Reconstruction Unit (THRU) Gemunu Alawattegama told the Daily News that the Government was confident of completing all tsunami reconstruction by the next Sinhala and Tamil New Year.

According to the THRU, the Government body entrusted with rebuilding houses destroyed by the tsunami, the total housing requirement of persons displaced by the disaster is around 90,000.

This includes 45,000 completely or partially destroyed houses in the buffer zone and around 145,000 in the other areas. "The Government has identified and acquired 50 per cent of the land required for resettlement and handed them to the donor agencies which carry out the construction.

"They have started work on 20,000 houses already," Alawattegama said.