International bodies join flood relief programme

Uditha Kumarasinghe

Four leading international organisations in Sri Lanka have pledged to provide immediate relief assistance to the victims in seven flood affected districts.

This follows extensive discussions held by local representatives of the World Food Programme, WHO, UNDP and UNHCR with Disaster Management and Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe on Monday, a Ministry spokesman told the Daily News yesterday.

The discussion was centred on ways to provide immediate relief assistance to the flood affected families in these seven districts, he said.

Following the discussion, international organisations have pledged to provide financial assistance to the flood victims to rebuild their houses, provide them health and other sanitary facilities and rebuild their livelihoods.

Teams from these international organisations will visit the flood affected areas in Kalutara, Galle, Matara, Ratnapura, Gampaha, Kegalle and Colombo districts within the next few days. These observation teams in consultation with the District Secretaries in the respective districts will decide on the amount of aid to be allocated to these districts. Arrangements have been made to provide financial assistance within two weeks, the spokesman said.

The World Food Programme has already granted 200 Metric tons of dry rations to the Government to be distributed among the flood affected in these seven districts, he added.