Over 800,000 displaced sheltered in five years

Minister Rohana Dissanayake tells UN:

"Emerging challenges of post conflict recovery in the North and East of Sri Lanka, particularly in the areas of housing, water supply and sanitation, far surpass those of the tsunami, the devastating natural calamity of such magnitude as had never been experienced in the 2500 years of Sri Lankan civilisation. With over 800,000 displaced persons - recovery of housing is the primary need of the affected and also critical first step in the need to "rebuild their lives". The government with President Mahinda Rajapaksa personally providing leadership is currently engaged in developing a comprehensive housing recovery program for those affected by the decades' old war of North and East."

So said Minister of Urban Development, Rohana Dissanayake at the 22nd Session of Governing Council of United Nations Human Settlement Programme (UN Habitat) which was held from March 30 to April 03 at the UN Habitat Headquarters, Nairobi, Kenya.

On the invitation of the Executive Director of UN Habitat, Mrs. Anna Tibajuka, Vice President of Republic of Kenya, Stephen Kalonzo Musyoka ceremonially inaugurated this conference. More than 1,000 delegates from 58 member countries including Sri Lanka participated.

"We are thankful to UN-Habitat for the initiative and the assistance in establishing the Slum Improvement Fund which is at its initial stage of involvement in providing credit to the urban poor and the marginalised to improve their living conditions and we assure continuing our cooperation and support to the programme. However, it has to be highlighted that the Banking and other financial institutions contribute with unfair demands of collateral and other conditions, in spite of the matter canvassed over a long period of time at numerous forums worldwide.

The global financial meltdown needless to say will further aggravate the enormous challenges faced by the poor.

With the countries of affluence concentrating their attention exclusively on containing the effects of the crisis on their economies, the misery of the poorest will only further aggravate and Millennium Goal 7 that calls for the significant improvement in the lives of slum dwellers by 2020 will remain an unattained dream unless the world community intervenes now.

We urge at this 22nd Governing Council that UN-Habitat urgently establish a high-level and representative group to visit the financial centers of the world and intervene to alleviate the impending disastrous consequences of the global financial crisis on lives and livelihood of the poorest of the world.

Whilst being built upon Sri Lanka's past experiences in promoting housing for the poor with priority and vigor, our recent programmes are mostly designed for implementation in local and community based partnerships where as others public private partnerships include components to serve the housing needs of the poorer communities as well as those of the middle income in accordance with the priority commitment to the eradication of urban poverty and the promotion of urban good governance.

The "Arunodaya", a local community based participatory slum and shanty replacement programme by now spread out over many parts of the island nation, had commenced exclusively funded by the CESS in September 2007 and since then have provided replacement housing for over 2000 families in slums or shanties with a further 1500 families in the course of building their new housing utilizing grants totalling to Rs. 400 million exclusively from the "CESS" supporting core accommodation to replace their existing dwellings."