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Sunday, 4 October 2015

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In danger of being displaced

Continuous rains have placed thousands in the plantation community at grave risk:

With rain and thunderstorms forecast to continue and the Disaster Management Centre contines to warn of landslide threats in Nuwara Eliya and Badulla regions.

The Meeriabedde landslide
Removing the earth after the landslide.
Landslide at Wedamulla

The safety of the people in the hill country, specially the plantation community is at grave risk. They are victims of two disastrous landslides in the recent past and as inhabitants of the treacherous hills, with no proper shelter, exposure to the inclement weather and no relief forthcoming- their predicament is a cause for concern.

In the August 25 landslide disaster at Liddesdale Estate, Ramboda , Wedamulla in the Kotmale Pradeshiya Sabha Division, seven estate workers were killed.

Five women and a 50-year- old man were rescued with both legs being dismembered, three youngsters were still missing, 30 members of nine families were injured and 198 persons have been affected. These people are housed in schools, temples and children's welfare centres. Rescue operations were delayed due to extensive damage to access roads.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister's office on Thursday released Rs. 4 million for relief assistance to affected families.

Relocate

Steps will be taken to relocate them in safer places, according to the communique. Minister of Upcountry New Villages, Estate Infrastructure and Community Development Palany Dhigamparam, urged the plantation management companies at a meeting in his Ministry to resolve the problems of workers, especially displacement due to landslides in a humane manner.

He said that temporary shelters and allotment of suitable homestead lands and other humanitarian assistance should be provided fast.

Minister Dhigamparam will lay the foundation stone on October 6, for 19 houses for families displaced in the Liddesdale landslide and suitable locations have been identified by the National Building Research Organisation (NBRO). Follow up action on the construction will be undertaken by the Plantation Human Development Trust (PHDT).

At a meeting at the PHDT, Minister Dhigamparam said that about 5000 houses will have to be constructed for people who would be relocated from landslide-prone areas in the future.

He had completed the construction work on 400 houses for plantation workers under the 100-day program of the previous UNF government and many of these houses will be handed over to families in the coming weeks, Ministry sources said.

Temporary shelters

However, what is shocking is that one year has lapsed since the worst landslide disaster at the Meeriabedde Estate in Koslanda in October 2014 burying over 200 people alive under millions of tons of mountainous earth, making recovery of bodies unthinkable but not even four of the 75 houses needed for the 75 displaced families have been constructed up to now. The families are now in temporary shelters in Poonagalla in spite of assurances that the houses will be constructed for them within 'two weeks'. Ministry sources said that funds from the Treasury were released to the Badulla Secretariat to construct the houses, and therefore, the relevant ministries were unable to interfere. Additional District Secretary, Badulla, Gamini Mahindapala told the Sunday Observer the foundation stone for the houses were laid by former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa but the construction work was delayed because locations had to be changed, open tender procedures had to be followed for the purchase of Rs. 90 million worth of building material and the cement blocks had to be lab-tested before use.

Orders for these items have now been placed and construction work will be completed by December this year. Construction work is being handled by the Army, the Additional GA said. Disaster Management Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa and senior officials of the relevant ministries will undertake an inspection visit to the construction site tomorrow, October 5, ministry sources said.

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