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by M. P. Muttiah

Associate Research Fellow of the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) Paul Steele, launching the report ``Listening to those who Lost: Survey and Analysis of Rebuilding and Relocation of Tsunami-affected Households in Sri Lanka", in Colombo on August 12, said that land value inside the buffer zone was on a downward trend while outside it had increased by as much as 5 to 10 times. He stressed that encouragement should be given to the State to sell available land.

Steele said funds proposed for each household, Rs. 250,000 for fully destroyed and Rs. 100,000 for partially damaged houses were insufficient due to the rising cost of material and a desire for strong houses with concrete slabs to face future disasters.

Some of the affected showed little desire for loans as they were concerned over the interest rates. Access to loans from banks for rebuilding was a major hurdle due to lack of documents as 23 percent of households have lost their deeds and have no other ownership documents, and 41 percent of households had lost their national identity cards.

He suggested to expedite the replacement of lost documents especially identity cards and title deeds. Pre-built houses were generally preferred by almost all of the households outside the buffer zone, while 28 percent preferred credit and 10 percent materials, he said.

IPS Research Officer Asha Gunawardena said that a randomised survey conducted among 622 households had shown that women who died during tsunami was more than 50 percent than men. Female headed households rose to 30 from 16 percent after tsunami.

At the same time, the higher death rate among women had led to an increase in single male parent families.

Asha said that authorities were not paying attention to the requests of the people to consider alternative lands and if people's wishes were ignored that would lead to potential conflict in areas such as Ampara. She said that 74 percent of households had considered water as very essential. Distance to sea was considered as very important by 69 percent.

Asha said that this survey was done in six districts and could not be undertaken in Mullaitivu and Jaffna as permission was delayed by the LTTE.

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