Donor demolishes 142 houses built for tsunami-affected

D. C. de Silva, Kahawa Special correspondent

AHANGAMA: A foreign donor has demolished all 142 newly built tsunami houses in Kataluwawatta in Ahangama saying that, those houses have not been built according to the given standards by the contractor".

These houses, each consisting of three bed-rooms, one kitchen , one bath room, and one toilet on 650 square feet floor area, were built to resettle, tsunami affected families in the area, by the Austrian NGO, "Kurior-Aid Austria" affiliated to a renowned newspaper in Austria, said project Director, Mark Santuer to the Daily News recently. "This is a loss amounting to a sum of Rupees 30 mln to 50 mln to the organisation", he said.

"By now we have started several housing projects", he said. One out of those projects was unsuccessful, and it was the Kataluwa project", he said. Fault is not with us but with the contractors" he further said. Project was initiated in August 2005, and up to now, 70 per cent of work have been completed," he said. When some problems arose on the construction we got down a team of independent civil engineers, and officials from the National Institute of construction researchers, and they reported that the houses were not up to the requirements.

"Whatever the loss is no problem for me, problem is the set-back in my effort but to resettle those innocent families yet living in the insanitary wooden - houses, in the area, who kept hopes to gain a new house in the project" he told the Daily News. We have educated all State institutions and other authorities on this setback", he said. "Whatever it is, I will never stop the project to build new houses for these families, he said.