Sri Lanka: Floods in Batticaloa district
24-11-2000 News Release 00/45
Since 17 November the entire district of Batticaloa, in the conflict-ridden Eastern Province, has been affected by floods due to heavy rain. In many places the roads are under water and some western areas are virtually inaccessible by land.
The Batticaloa branch of the Sri Lanka Red Cross Society (SLRCS), whose volunteers are scattered throughout the district, is currently monitoring the situation. On the morning of 20 November it was informed that marooned people in villages in the western areas had to be evacuated as their lives were in danger.
An ICRC team, including a mobile health unit, immediately set off for Kinnaiyady, near Valaichenai. In the afternoon a joint ICRC/SLRCS rescue operation was launched using three boats. Altogether, four trips were made and about 235 people, mostly women and children, were brought to safety. Fifty-two of them were ill and they were treated on the spot by the mobile health unit. The SLRCS arranged for the evacuees to be housed in a school in Sunkankerny and provided them with food for the night.
A similar operation was carried out on 21 November by the SLRCS with ICRC assistance to evacuate marooned people in the villages of Saravely, Murukkantivu and Pirampaditivu. Three boats were used to bring 131 residents to safety. Most of them were women, children and old people.
The ICRC has been present in Sri Lanka since 1989. It currently has 48 expatriates and 300 local staff based at its delegation in Colombo and in its 11 offices in the north and east of the co untry.
BY Batticaloa Correspondent-January 19, 2014
A large number of villages, in the Batticaloa District, have been marooned by flood waters.
Severe rain fall has affected the villages in the Eravur region, with the reservoirs reaching spill level.
An old steel bridge, in the Mavadi Odai area, has been washed away by the flood waters, hampering transportation in various areas.
Military personnel and the volunteers from the Disaster Management Centre are engaged in rescuing the villagers trapped by the flood waters.
The army and navy have deployed boats for rescue operations in the flood affected areas. Several paddy lands have also been flooded according to sources.
Meanwhile, Deputy Minister of Resettlement, Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan had recently announced that he had allocated Rs. 1,100 million to build new dams in the Eastern province, to protect the region from flooding. He also added that the construction work on the dams will begin at the end of next month.
