About 37,444 displaced in Hambantota

Raja Waidyasekera - Tissamaharama Special Corr

About 37,444 people in Hambantota district have been displaced as a result of floods, Hambantota District Secretary R. C. de Soysa said at a press conference at the Hambantota District Secretariat.

He said that the water level of Lunugamwehera reservoir has risen to 183,000 acre feet and six sluice gates were opened by the irrigation engineer Amarajith Liyanage.

The engineer said nine reservoirs out of eleven are overflowing. According to the Disaster Management Centre at Hambantota about 4,500 acres of paddy fields in Tissamaharama have been inundated at Magama and Aragasyaya, Attikkawa and in Tissamaharama DS area. Three hundred acres of paddy fields have been destroyed at Pannegamuwa Polgahawelena. As aresult of Menik Ganga overflowing several circuit bungalows of Yala National Park were damaged.

Addressing the press conference the Hambantota Mayor Eraj Fernando said that certain bankrupt politicians in Hambantota district mislead people by saying that nothing was done to provide relief measures to the flood stricken.

They are trying to gain political mileage out of the flood situation instead of coming down to Hambantota and help the flood-stricken. The mayor said that all the officials of the District Secretariat, the Army, Police, Civil Security Service and the disaster management unit did everything to provide relief measures to the flood-stricken.