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Flood of relief but many cast away
On the spot report by Chris Kamalendran and Nalaka Nonis
Many have lost their loved ones to the raging flood waters or mounds of earth that came crashing down. Others have lost their livelihoods and their homes. But as the floods recede and the aid pours in, those who have suffered much are receiving little or nothing due to political interference and poor management of relief by the government.

As we visited devastated areas in the Ratnapura district and the Southern province, people flocked around us begging for food. Some were waving frantically, trying to draw the attention of the Sri Lanka Navy boats carrying relief items. Some of the villagers had not received food for two days.

In the aftermath of the ravages of floods and landslides that left 265 dead, over 500 missing and more than 50,000 houses destroyed, many were still living in schools, temples and other temporary abodes. A frequent cry that we heard was that the distribution of food was so poorly co-ordinated that those who were getting food stuff got more and more, while others got mere crumbs or in some cases nothing.

In certain places there was a wastage of food while in some instances people were being completely ignored, the principal of Rajapaksha Maha Vidyala in Deniyaya, J. Ekananayke said. His school had initially sheltered more than 5000 displaced people but the lack of facilities had forced him to send most of them to schools and temples closeby.

Even Interior Minister John Amaratunga had admitted that people in interior areas were not receiving relief supplies due to difficulties in reaching them. When we visited the District Secretary's office in Ratnapura-from where most of the relief operations for the district were being conducted-it was clear that the lack of personnel and planning was posing a problem to the District Secretary Malani Premaratne, who also had to be available to accompany ministers and visiting politicians to the affected areas.

The services of the few hundred armed forces and police personnel were being stretched to maximum as they were being forced to plan out food distribution programmes in addition to rescue operations and clearing of roads.

The distribution of food was managed by the respective District Secretaries that handed it over to Divisional Secretaries which in turn handed it over to the Grama Sevaka Niladharis, who distributed the food to the people. But there were allegations that in this process, a considerable amount of food was reaching selected people including political supporters, close relatives and friends while some of the areas were being totally neglected.

There were also allegations that donors were handing over their relief packages to easily accessible centres resulting in some areas getting a larger portion of donations. It was the same complaint regarding donations being handed over to some of the larger organisations that directed the supplies to one particular location.
It took six days after the floods, for the head of the Disaster Management Unit, Power and Energy Minister Karu Jayasuriya to announce that the army and the Navy would be co-ordinating the distribution of flood relief. This move came in the face of complaints regarding discrepancies in the distribution of food.

Commodore Piyal de Silva, of the Sri Lanka Navy, who is in charge of naval activities in the Ratnapura District and coordinating distribution of relief supplies by water also confirmed this allegation. He said some were getting more and more relief while others were getting little or nothing due to poor coordination. In Ratnapura, there were reports that some politicians were interfering in the distribution of food, ordering officials to distribute food only to areas named by them.

Meanwhile, these people who had to face the wrath of nature were not even spared by human scavengers. More than 30 houses in Diyadava, Olakumbura and Deniyaya were looted while the occupants fled their houses in fear of floods and landslides. In some areas, organised gangs had reportedly sounded false alarms about possible landslides, forcing villagers to flee their homes leaving them vulnerable to looters.
There were also reports that black marketeers were thriving in the situation, with wholesale businessmen especially in Deniyaya and Matara, selling goods to retail sellers at high prices, forcing them in turn to sell their products at exorbitant rates to the poor suffering consumer.

Good neighbourliness
Dr. Sudha Mohan, from the Indian Army sits in a classroom at Rajapaksha Maha Vidyalaya attending to those affected by the floods and landslides. He will be spending three hours there before he moves on to another location to continue his work.

Dr. Mohan, was among a team of nearly 150 Indian sailors and soldiers, trained in handling disaster management, sent to Sri Lanka to assist the local Navy and Army personnel.

Some of the Indians had arrived on board the 'Sharda', an offshore patrol vessel while others were airlifted to affected areas. The team is equipped with a helicopter, life saving boats and ambulances.

"If we run short of medicine or need any more specialists we will get them from India," says Dr. Mohan while attending to an elderly patient suffering from a heart ailment.
The Indian team of doctors, medical assistants and rescue workers including divers have been welcomed by the villagers as they awaited the much needed relief.

In Ratnapura, the Indian rescue team had moved some 25 kilometres up the river to inaccessible areas. More than 500 patients had been treated by Friday for dehydration, fever, injuries and other infections.

While in Kalutara, the Indian naval divers had transported CEB engineers to remote inaccessible areas to restore power, in Matara they were involved in operations alongside the local Navy and Army personnel to rescue more than 5000 people who had been marooned.

Most of the people who called over for treatment were either suffering from diarrhoea, infections, fever, or asthma.

Silent volunteers move mountains
By Marisa de Silva & Ishani Ranasinghe
In one of the worst floods to hit Sri Lanka in the past five and half decades, the local community has proved that together, they can even move mountains. From organizations such as the Sri Lanka Red Cross Society (SLRCS) to school children from all parts of the country, everyone wants to help in some way to lessen the load of the mammoth task of providing flood relief to more than 500,000 displaced people, in the South.

Everyone wants to help out, as it's clearly a national crisis. "It's of paramount importance that the government implements some sort of order, in the manner in which rations and money are being channeled because, the people who are easily accessible and in relatively safe areas, could be getting an overdose of aid, whereas some could be getting nothing at all," says Red Cross Executive Director A. Lecamwasam.

Thus, a methodical transportation and distribution of relief aid is vital to those stuck in the middle of nowhere, he says. The Red Cross has mobilised more than 10,000 volunteers from Ratnapura, Kalutara, Galle, Matara and Hambantota -- areas that were worst hit by the floods. Mr. Lecamwasam claims that most of the Matara District has been accessed and aid given, as speed boats have been sent out with rations to reach the people who cannot be accessed easily and the evacuation process is ongoing.

Red Cross volunteer Rukshan Peiris, a management trainee at Commercial Bank, said that to get the real picture of the present situation, one had to go there and see it for himself.

On speaking to some volunteers who were loading a lorry to be driven to the South, we found out how the everyday person is doing such a yeoman service for this cause.
Young Kavindhu Tilakmal (16), told us how he joined the Red Cross Society in his school in Weyangoda and how he had volunteered to help. His parents too had encouraged him to assist with the relief programme and had even dropped him off at the Red Cross in Colombo. He modestly added that it was stated in the pledge of the Red Cross, that they should help if ever the need arose and so he was merely doing what was expected of him.

Working all through the night and showing the utmost commitment and dedication to his job was Pubudu Dilanka (20), from Meepe, Avissawella. Since he arrived at the Red Cross headquarters on Monday, he has been engaged in relief operation with little or no sleep.

It's good to acknowledge the silent helpers, who are working nonstop, loading at this end and unloading at the other end, with the sole intention of lending a helping hand to those in need of their help.

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