Floods affected more than 600,000 people...!!!

Sunday, 23 May 2010


Accelerated program to mitigate flood disaster
By Ranil WIJAYAPALA


Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa along with Chinese Ambassador to Sri Lanka Yang Xiuping observed the current flood situation in the Gamapaha district yesterday

* Floods affected more than 600,000 people

* Over 20 deaths due to flood related incidents

* 466 houses fully damaged

* Seven districts affected

* Gampaha, the worst hit

* Displaced sheltered in 77 centres

* Government allocates Rs. 34 million for people affected

* Immediate measures to remove unauthorised structures

blocking the flow of water

* President orders all relevant agencies to act together to meet the challenge

* Security Forces take the lead in assisting those affected

Just two weeks back the whole country was complaining about the unbearable heat. Occasional showers that lashed many parts of the country could not beat the heat even at midnight.

But things have changed so fast taking a U turn within a week. The same people who complained about the heat a week ago are now affected by floods that had displaced hundreds of thousands of people.

The number of people affected exceeded 600,000 on Friday evening creating a major disaster situation. The majority affected in the floods are from the Western Province itself and highest affected from the Gampaha district.

Over 20 persons lost their lives due to bad weather conditions and floods. The causes for these deaths range from electrocution, drowning and fall of trees.

On May 13 and 14, flash floods were reported from many parts of the Western province especially in Colombo and Gampaha districts. Even Matara and Galle districts were also affected due to heavy rains causing floods in some parts of the Southern province.The pause in the rainfall over the last weekend was a sigh of relief for people. But a sudden depression in the lower atmosphere around the island coupled with pre-monsoonal rains once again caused heavy rains on May 17 causing severe floods in many parts of the country including Gampaha, Colombo, Kalutara, Ratnapura, Kegalle, Puttalam and Nuwara Eliya districts.Water levels of Kelani River, Kalu Ganga and Gin Ganga rose up to flood levels causing severe floods in many districts.

The Worst situation was reported from Gampaha and Kalutara districts with many roads going under water crippling the day today lives of hundreds of thousands of people as many were displaced due to floods.Attendance at schools was reported below 40 per cent and many office workers got struck in heavy traffic and flood waters on their way to work.

Train services were affected severely with two tracks damaged due to floods leaving only one track operational in the Hunupitiya area.

According to Gamini Hettiarachchi, Director General of the Disaster Management Centre, floods reported during the week was the biggest flood situation that has been reported in decades as 606,072 people from 141,586 families have affected.

“In the recent past, such a large number of families were not affected in floods”, Hettiarachchi added. Therefore this is a major flood situation, he added.

The Government reacted to the situation smoothly with all Government mechanisms put in place to cater to the needs of the flood affected people and speedy action taken to create a better drainage and canal system for the smooth flow of rain water.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa had an emergency meeting on Tuesday with all relevant agencies to discuss the situation.

He instructed all Local authorities, The Home Affairs Ministry and the Divisional Secretaries to act together to cater to the needs of flood victims.The situation got worse as pre-monsoonal rains continued to lash many parts of the country including the hydro-catchment areas.

The Victory Day parade that was scheduled for May 20 to mark the first anniversary of the victory over terrorism was postponed in view of the bad weather.

Although, heavy rains are a good news for the Ceylon Electricity Board, they too were affected severely as some of the grid substations in Kelaniya and Colombo North had to switched off after going under water.

Even the Bandaranaike International Airport got affected as access roads to the Katunayake airport from Minuwangoda went under water, due to overflow of the Attanagalu Oya and Ja-Ela.

Ja-Ela-Ekala and Ja-Ela-Minuwangoda Roads also went under water severely affecting transport services.

Many roads in the Kalutara district including Horana-Kalutara, Horana-Anguruwathota and Horana-Mathugama Roads went under water. Even the roads in Ratnapura and Kegalle districts were rendered impassable due to floods.

The number of families affected in the Gampaha district alone was 47,303 as at Friday noon and the number increased yesterday. Katana, Kelaniya, Wattala and Ja-Ela were the worst affected areas. In Wattala alone 51,624 people belonging to 11,651 families were affected.

In Kalutara district 88,344 people belonging to 20,569 families were affected. The worst affected in the Kalutara district was the Panadura Divisional Secretariat area with 27,914 people got affected due to floods.

Kolonnawa, Moratuwa, Thimbirigasyaya and Colombo Divisional Secretariat were the worst affected from the Colombo district - 8,375 families in the Kolonnawa, 3,790 families in Moratuwa, 4,113 in Thimbirigasyaya and 10,553 families in Colombo have been affected. Altogether 142,450 people have been affected in the Colombo district, according to the Disaster Management Centre.In the Galle district 86,484 families have been affected with the highest number 46,200 reported from the Hikkaduwa Divisional Secretariat area.

“To meet the immediate requirement of the affected people the Disaster Management Centre issued Rs. 2.5 million to all flood affected districts,” the Director General of DMC, Hettiarachchi said.Apart from this the Government has already allocated Rs. 34 million for the affected districts. According to Hettiarachchi Rs. 13 million for Colombo, Rs. 5.8 million for Galle, Rs. 5 million for Gampaha, Rs. 7 million for Kalutara, Rs. 300,000 for Kegalle, Rs. 1.5 million for the Ratnapura and Rs 1 million for Puttalam have been allocated to meet the requirements of the displaced people.

They have been sheltered at 77 schools and other public places.

Ministers, MPs and Government officials were seen among the flood affected. Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa, Social Services Minister Felix Perera, were among the first to visit the flood affected people in Gampaha to find the root cause for the floods.

“The Security Forces and the Police also deployed their teams to evacuate and rescue the marooned people”, Hettiarachchi added.

The Sri Lanka Navy deployed 30 Naval teams in Minuwangoda, Ja-Ela, Seeduva, Kotugoda, Kimbulapitiya, Gampaha, Katana, Kelaniya, Biyagama and Kolonnawa areas to support the flood affected people along with 30 Naval boats, Navy Spokesman Captain Athula Senerath said.

In addition Navy teams were also deployed in Lunuwila in Puttalama district and in Kalutara and Ratnapura districts.The Navy also did a great job helping the Airport bound people from Minuwangoda to reach the airport as the road was flooded in Naiwala area.

“The SLN supported the people to go to the airport through the flooded roads and also for the passengers arriving from the airport to reach their destinations crossing the floods throughout the week,” Captain Senerath added.

Navy Commander Vice Admiral Thisara Samarasinghe visited the flood affected areas in Gampaha on May 17 and 20 to inspect the Navy personnel helping the flood affected people.

The Sri Lanka Army also deployed 2000 personnel to assist the flood affected people in Colombo, Gampaha and Kalutara districts.

“The Sri Lanka Army also assisted to widen the estuaries at Keravalapitiya and Kalutara to speed the smooth flow of flood water to the sea”, a spokesman for the Army said.

Director General of the Disaster Management Centre, Hettiarachchi said discussions are now on to mitigate the flood situation.

“The current situation is due to heavy rains caused by the depression and cyclonic weather conditions. But we are also taking steps to evolve an efficient drainage system to streamline the flow of rain water during the rainy season,” he added.

The relevant ministries and the local government authorities are now working together to achieve this task under the directives of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, he added.

“It was due to the shortsighted acts of the people through unauthorised construction, invasion of water retention areas by filling those lands and the blockade of canals and drains through dumping solid garbage, caused immeasurable damages to the people during floods.

So we must act fast to remedy this situation to minimise floods in the future”, Hettiarachchi added.Although the situation was improving slightly yesterday the warning issued by the National Building Research Organisation about possible landslides in Ratnapura, Kalutara districts and a few other districts in the hilly areas still stand.

As an active monsoonal rain period has been predicted by the Meterological Department alarm bells are ringing about worse disasters if precautionary measures are not taken to mitigate disasters of this nature.

sundayobserver.lk
Produced by Lake House Copyright © 2010 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.