Damage estimated at over Rs. 20 million :

Parliamentary staff help pump out flood water

by Ranil WIJAYAPALA

Over 200 members of the parliamentary staff with the assistance of service personnel continued pumping out flood water from the committee rooms of Parliament yesterday too, to enable Parliament to hold its sessions on Tuesday morning, Sergeant-at-Arms Anil Samarasekera told the Sunday Observer.

The flash floods after the heavy downpour on Wednesday night and Thursday morning affected the parliamentary complex as its first floor was nearly four to five feet under water.

Samarasekera said that considerable damage had been caused to the first floor of the building affecting air-conditioners, carpets, sofas and computers.

“Our staff saved more than 90 percent of vital equipment, such as computers and X-ray machines on the first floor. Some equipment were removed manually by the parliamentary staff”, Samarasekara said. He said that the Committee Rooms 1 and 2 have been badly affected and some of the computers had also been damaged by the floods.

“We can restore the parliamentary complex except the committee rooms, that were badly damaged and hold the parliamentary sessions on Tuesday morning”, he said.

“We cannot estimate the damage due to the floods off-hand but it could be considerable.

However, all services can be restored soon”, he said.

According to unofficial sources the damage could be over Rs. 20 million.