Post tsunami recovery in Sri Lanka

by Shanti Fernando

The Tsunami of December 26th 2004 ravaged the coast of Sri Lanka. It was the biggest natural disaster that had struck the country within historical memory. Around thirty thousand people died in the tragedy.

Nearly a hundred thousand homes were damaged or destroyed. What is equally striking is the way in which Sri Lanka, a country which has not experienced even a flood, earthquake or cyclone of a dimension that can be called large or widespread within historical times, recovered from an event which shook the hearts and minds of the world's population.

The major share of pride for Sri Lanka's quick recovery is owed to the government. Sri Lanka demonstrated the efficacy of its State administration to act fast and effectively to bring the situation under control and help restore economic and social life to near normal levels without delay.

Immediately the tsunami struck the Sri Lankan coast, it was the adjoining communities, the religious institutions and the armed services that doubled up behind the local administration to come to the relief of the affected people.

Drive from the top

President Kumaratunga being away from the country at the time, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa commanded the crucial rescue and relief stage of the aftermath and immediately mobilized the Centre to provide relief to the ravaged districts. He also lost no time in appealing for support to the international community.

He started the process by calling his friend the Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh within hours if not minutes of the tragedy. India in turn lost no time in being the first country to airlift relief to Sri Lanka's affected people.

Inspired by the dedication of his initiative and spurred on by the pathetic situation on the ground, the public service at the level of the affected districts - cut off from the Centre by the damage to roads, railway and telecommunications - came out with a dedication unparalleled in the recent history of the island State, to demonstrate the superlative manner in which it can come to the help of the people and the country in an hour of need and challenge.

Immediate Relief

The armed services too were out in their numbers, working with untold dedication to rescue people and provide relief. And at ground level the temples and churches transformed themselves into local rescue and relief centres, and together with the local schools were the camps where those internally displaced were provided food and shelter.

Inland communities supported the local administration by organizing themselves to provide food and clothing to their brothers and sisters along the affected coast, until the State was able to secure this aspect of the relief operation. The temples and churches transformed into local rescue and relief centres, and together with the local schools were the camps where those internally displaced were provided food and shelter.

Health Services

A forlorn tsunami site

Temporary shelter

Reconstruction in progress

Speculating on the basis of the experience of the post disaster scenarios of other countries, scare stories of impending epidemics began to do the rounds. But this was not to be. Sri Lanka is known for the high quality and the wide spread of its health services.

The achievement of the country's health sector in the aftermath of the tsunami stands unique. Thanks to the spread and effectiveness of their preventive and curative services in the affected villages and refugee camps, not a single epidemic of even a small dimension is known to have occurred, bringing pride to the health services of a small developing third world country.

The southern railway track from Angulana near Colombo to Matara in the deep South, a length of 135 km, was completely damaged and partly destroyed. The railways department lost no time in mobilizing its staff to assess the damage and reinstate the track. With the active support of trade unions, the department was able to re-lay the track and commence rail services to the final point at Matara in 57 days.

This was another unparalleled achievement for a developing third world country and a pride to its State sector services.

Roads back in shape

Needless to say the coastal roads were badly damaged by the tsunami, making road transport to the affected districts difficult if not impossible. Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, in his capacity as Minister of Highways, directed the Road Development Authority (RDA) to mobilize all foreign and local contractors working on road projects in the country to clear the debris, install emergency bridges at all locations and make the roads motorable within 72 hours of the tragedy.

Under the drive of the Prime Minister / Minister of Highways, Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa, engineers and workers toiled day and night to achieve the target and enable vehicles transporting food and other needs to access the villages and refugee camps where displaced persons were housed.

It has been commented that such an achievement would have been the pride of even a developed industrial country. Needless to say, electricity transmission too was disrupted: So was water supply and telecommunications. It did not take 10 days, in most places much less, for electricity and water to be restored. Wire line telephony took around three weeks to restore in some places, while wireless telephony was restored in a matter of three days at the most.

Schools never close

Schools on the other hand were on vacation at the time of the tsunami. To the eternal pride of the educational services of the country, all students in schools that were damaged or destroyed were located in other functioning schools nearby when schools re-opened for the New Year in January.

Not a single day of education was therefore lost by the affected children. Everything was restored fast except housing: And that is the exception that proves the rule, - namely the efficiency and effectiveness of the governmental machinery in Sri Lanka.

Immediately following the tsunami, large numbers of international Non Governmental Organisations (INGOs) found their way to Sir Lanka, as they did to other tsunami ravaged countries, to offer aid and assistance.

Exploiting the wave of sympathy and compassion that engulfed the world in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy, these organizations were able to amass a great deal of funds for relief and rehabilitation from compassionate organizations and individuals in the rich countries.

The INGO avalanche which followed the tsunami also included a considerable number of fly-by-night organizations of dubious origin and credibility as well. A country that had no previous experience of such an onslaught of international NGOs and other aid-offering organizations obviously did not have the capacity to discriminate between the reliable and the unreliable, the trustworthy and the fugitive, and the truthful and the deceitful among them.

Overawed by these enormous offers of help from INGO and NGO communities the world over, the Sri Lankan government decided to hand over the responsibility to them of constructing new houses for those who were located within the 35 metre restricted zone declared by Sri Lanka's Coast Conservation Department.

58 well known international and national NGOs came forward and solemnly pledged to construct 65,782 houses which would have enabled not only the 30,049 families of the restricted zone but even the non-entitlement bearing sub-families who lived with the main householders and non-entitlement bearing encroachers and those who lived on rent in other people's houses in the restricted zone to access new houses for themselves.

Hopes ran high. With news pouring in through the print and electronic media of the enormous resources raised for tsunami relief and rehabilitation from the compassionate public of the rich countries, it was expected that the displaced families living in the 57,057 transitional shelters will be living in permanent houses in double quick time.

But hopes blasted

But this was not to be. Of the 65,782 houses pledged by the 58 NGOs and INGOs, Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) were signed by them only in respect of 34,686, and what is more shocking is that by the 30th Novmeber 2006 only 12,207 houses were completed and another 12,897 were in different stages of being constructed.

By way of example, one well known International NGO which pledged to build 15,000 houses, signed a MOU to construct 5,534 but in fact completed only 526 houses a year and eleven months after the tragedy. Another equally well known International NGO which had pledged to build 26,000 houses and entered into an MOU only with respect to 992 houses had in fact completed only 91 houses during the same period.

The NGOs that worked

At the same time all NGOs were not equal defaulters or failures. Many kept their word and acted with transparency while many more contributed to the over-all failure of the sector in the matter of post tsunami house construction.

As a result, 14,961 families still continue to live in transitional temporary shelters nearly two years after the tsunami. It is noted that as a rule the smaller NGOs honoured their promises and this included almost all the Buddhist Temple groups from Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan the USA etc that came forward to build houses for the affected families.

Lack of Transparency

This level of irresponsibility or failure on the part of the INGO and NGO communities taken as a whole contrasted sharply with the commitment and dedication of the governmental administrative services in the post tsunami relief and reconstruction phase.

The Sri Lankan media as well as the Reconstruction and Development Agency (RADA) have repeatedly appealed to the NGOs for transparency. They have been challenged to openly declare details of the funds collected by them for tsunami relief and rehabilitation, the proportion expended on themselves by way of salaries, living expenses, administrative costs, transport and other allowances.

They have been compared to the proverbial beggar who continuously re-infects the wound on his hand in order to be able to go on begging from his benefactors. But all this has been of no avail.

To our knowledge not a single NGO or INGO has gone public with the kind of information which the Sri Lankan public has been demanding.

Frustrated by their recurring failure to perform in the matter of housing reconstruction, and increasingly despondent as the second year of post tsunami reconstruction and rehabilitation rapidly draws to a close, RADA has appealed to the defaulting NGOs and INGOs to give the pledged funds to the affected families themselves to construct their own houses under the supervision of the district administration.

Unlike two years ago when they were in a state of intense shock and bewilderment, two years up the road the homeless families are today in control of their circumstances and ready to engage in their own house construction.

RADA has appealed several times to the NGO and INGO communities to now respond realistically to the changed circumstances of those displaced, and instead of building houses for others to support the people to build their houses for themselves with the funds they collected in the name of the tsunami affected people.

12 INGos and NGOs have responded positively to this call and are now in the process of supporting the construction of 1617 houses by affected families on this basis.

Restoration of houses

For the affected families that lived outside the restricted zone, four donors namely IDA / World Bank, ADB, KFW / Germany and SDC / Switzerland, came forward with resources to enable families to repair their partially and fully damaged houses.

Cash grants of SL Rs. 250,000 (US$ 2,500) for fully damaged houses and Rs 100,000 (US$ 1,000) for houses partially damaged were released in installments via the national banking system through a scheme carefully monitored and supervised by the district administration. Of the 39,361 fully damaged houses, 11,513 (29%) have been fully restored and the remaining 27,818 (71%) are under repair.

Of the 39,823 partly damaged houses benefiting from this scheme, 34,988 (88%) have been fully restored while the remaining 4,835 (12%) are still under repair. Thus in regard to partially damaged houses, the scheme has been most successful.

In respect of the more severely damaged houses - the fully damaged category - however, it is our experience that the grant is insufficient and progress has been hence restricted. But despite these limitations it is agreed that the scheme has been efficiently and effectively implemented and monitored by the country's district administration.

Means of livelihood back on track

Most of the livelihoods affected by the tsunami were those related to fishing, tourism and the thousands of mini and micro enterprises based on these major pillars of the local economy and on providing the day to day needs of the local population. Surveys have revealed that more than 75% of the affected households have successfully re-gained their main source of income with perhaps slightly lesser income than before.

Regarding the fishery which was badly hit by the tsunami, reports indicate that 100% of damaged boats, engines and gear have been repaired and 95% of destroyed boats, engines and nets have been already replaced.

70% of the catch is back to pre-tsunami levels though fishing restrictions in the Northern and Eastern seas are affecting the livelihoods of fishermen in those areas. 75% of the land used for paddy cultivation and 84% of the land used in vegetable cultivation is back in use. The shortfall is due to factors such as soil salinity, labour shortage and lack of access to working capital in the Eastern districts.

The reasons for this rapid recovery of livelihoods include the efficiency of the Government in quickly restoring the fisheries harbours damaged by the tsunami, the ability of the Government to provide as many as 57,862 loans and grants with an outlay of more than Rs. 200 million (US$ 200,000) for the recovery of micro, small and medium enterprises through government sponsored finance schemes, and the role of INGOs, NGOs and Bilateral Donors in establishing their own grant and loan schemes and in helping restore the damaged fishing fleet of the tsunami affected districts.

Thus as we slowly but surely reach the second anniversary of the Asian tsunami, Sri Lanka presents the case of a State sector that has been efficacious, efficient and successful when contrasted with a non governmental sector that has failed dismally in housing reconstruction and also lacked the transparency and accountability that is strongly built into the country's system of governance.

Reprinted with permission of Business Economics, New Delhi