Recovery from tsunami disaster President's top priority: PM

by P. Krishnaswamy

The challenge of recovery from the December tsunami was at the top of the policy agenda of the new Government headed by President Mahinda Rajapakse, said Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake.

He was delivering his key note address at a seminar on Post Tsunami Recovery in Sri Lanka: One Year On at the BMICH yesterday.

The seminar was held under the auspices of the Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka.

As a significant first step, the Government set up a Ministry dedicated to the task of National Disaster Management, the Prime Minister who is also Minister in charge of Disaster Management said.

The interim report of the IPS on 'Post-tsunami Recovery: Issues and Challenges in Sri Lanka' was taken up for discussions at the two day seminar after presentations by Dr. Saman Kelegama, Executive Director, IPS, Dr. Upananda Vidanapatirana, Secretary to the Prime Minister and the Prime Minister's keynote address.

While casualties of the natural disaster were quite high in the South and South West, the East and the North were hit hardest, the Premier said the Government appreciated an honest and constructive dialogue with all those who sincerely wanted to contribute to the huge national challenge.

"Two thirds of the deaths and 60 per cent of the initial displacement were in the East and the North," he said. The areas hit hardest by the tsunami have already suffered 20 years of conflict and over 300,000 people remained displaced by the conflict," the Prime Minister said.

In his policy statement to Parliament, President Rajapakse outlined highest priority to rehabilitating the North and East and also pledged that families displaced by the conflict will receive the same amount for rebuilding houses as the tsunami affected families, Wickremasinghe said.

"Despite the immensity of the task, the Nation rose to the challenge, assisted by the international community. In the face of the national disaster, Sri Lankans buried their divisions and rediscovered their common humanity," he said.

The Prime Minister identified the bigger and more difficult challenges of the national disaster as, achieving the long term recovery of the communities and the country; rebuilding the devasted houses, schools, hospitals, roads and bridges; assisting the affected people to get over their grief and trauma and preparedness to face any future natural disasters.

The Prime Minister said: "People who were living in tents or similar temporary shelters have been moved to transitional shelters. The railway is operational, bridges and roads have been largely restored. Reconstruction is under way for the nearly 100 health facilities and about 200 schools damaged in the natural disaster.

In many cases, new schools and health facilities will be considerably better than before. But much still remains to be done in the difficult task of reconstruction.

Permanent houses are being pre-built for those whose houses were destroyed in the buffer zone. About 50,000 new houses are required. To build these permanent houses, the Government realised that it needed to work with others. These houses are being built by NGOs and other donors.

A total of 25,000 houses are now under construction. Donors have been found for another 5,000 houses. But we need to do much more. We are still finding land for the balance 20,000 houses.

The Government is providing funds to households outside the buffer zone to rebuild their own homes. Almost all 50,000 eligible families have claimed their first instalment for the rebuilding. But further grants have been claimed by much fewer families. We need to understand why further instalments are not being processed.

Our other key priority is to help people to restore their livelihoods. About 200,000 people lost their main source of income following the tsunami. Over 20,000 boats have been repaired and replaced. Over 12,000 loans have been disbursed to micro-entrepreneurs and small and medium scale businessmen."