Harbour, housing for fishermen

by Rohana JAYALAL

The Ceylon Fisheries Harbour Corporation in collaboration with the Ministry of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources has launched a fisheries harbour reconstruction and housing project for the families of fishermen who lost their lands and houses when the new fisheries harbour at Negombo was set up these families had to leave their original abode in Kokilai in 1990 after an LTTE attack and settle down in the Negombo area.

In the first phase the ministry constructed seven houses and fifteen houses under the second phase at Thalahena, Mahawaththa in Negombo area and settled twenty two families. The Greek Government has allocated one million Euros for the housing project and the Negombo fisheries harbour project, under the aegis of the fisheries sector development program and `Thotupola Aruna' program.

After the setting up the harbour which was a long felt need of the fishing community, steps have been taken to set up a 200 metre jetty, a fish processing centre, a canteen, fire fighting unit, a car park, a filling station with capacity of 8,000 litres, rest rooms for fishermen and an office room.This is the first harbour set up in ten months a record in itself.The Ministry would set up another housing project for the other fishing families in the area too, ministry sources said.