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Thousands
of tsunami houses stuck in stonewalls She said construction of 1,200 houses had been completed but people were not moved in because basic facilities like water were yet not available. She said the earlier target of completing the reconstruction work by December this year might have to be revised and they now hoped to complete it by the end of next year. She said that of the 48,610 damaged houses, the construction of 39,612 houses had been assigned to donor agencies and agreements to this effect had been signed. She said grants were being given to those who lost their houses outside the buffer zone while those in the buffer zone were being given permanent houses built outside the zone. The grant varies from Rs. 100,000 to Rs. 250,000, according to the extent of the damage. The initial grant will be Rs. 50,000 and the TAFREN will check the progress before giving the next instalment. But NGOs involved in tsunami relief tell a different story. For instance, Muslim Aid Sri Lanka Programme officer Amjad Mohamad Saleem said there was disorder and lack or coordination. He said his group had worked out a plan to rebuild 30 houses in Kinniya but the UDA in Colombo shot it down claiming another NGO would do the work but eventually nothing was done so far. He said his group had enough funding to build not just 30 houses but many more and it was lamentable that land was not readily available. He said people outside the buffer zone were the worst hit because they were virtually left out of the process while NGOs and donor agencies were largely involved in reconstruction of houses for people who lived within the buffer zone. |
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