The water is receding but not their anguish

By Dhananjani Silva and Nadia Fazlulhaq

The water levels have subsided…but people are still in dire need of assistance. The destruction left behind by the trail of floods two weeks ago is immense — people are displaced — they are traumatised.

Giving dry rations won’t help them regain all what they have lost- their hard earned possessions. Walan pigan, hatti mutti, school books and uniforms, TVs and radios, the list goes on… ‘How can we get back all these things?’ they ask.

Ride on a tyre through murky waters: This is the only way to go to school.

When The Sunday Times visited some of the flood-hit areas in Wattala the truth was plain to see.

Namal Uyana, Rajasinghe Mawatha is a small community, home to some 118 families.

Most of the people in this ‘watte’ have abandoned their homes and gone to nearby schools and temples in search of temporary shelters while there are others who have managed to return to their houses when the water receded, not completely but to a manageable level.

Day-to-day living is a struggle. A mother wades through knee-deep muddy water to carry her children home. The children are placed on top of a tyre and told to hold on tight while an adult pulls it. This activity is repeated to take the children to and from school.

Padma Rani, 42, from Namal Uyana is the leader of Mahila Samithi of the area and has actively participated in many programmes to bring relief to the flood-displaced families.

“Even though my house is flooded there are other houses in a worse state, some have even collapsed. This year the floods were rather heavy as the canals were not cleaned for several months. With the assistance of the Red Cross we conducted three medical clinics to ensure that epidemics do not spread. We got children vaccinated so that they would be safe from the spread of diseases. ‘Save the Children’ helped us too. But we didn’t get much attention from government officials, only the Grama Sevaka visited the area,” she says.

“More than dry rations or prepared food what we need is a permanent solution to this ongoing crisis,” she added.

W.G. Kusumawathie emerges from Padma Rani’s house attired in a clean skirt and blouse. From the looks of it, she does not seem to have been affected by the floods. Surprisingly, we learn that her house which is close to the canal is badly affected.

Schoolbooks hung out to dry with clothing. Pix by M.A. Pushpa Kumara

“There is no other way that I can come to Padma Rani’s house but through this filthy water. So after I come here, I change my wet clothes and wear the new clothes that I have kept here and when I go back to my place, I put on the old outfit,” she says.

Siddhartha Vidyalaya in Wattala shelters more than 70 families affected by floods in Namal Uyana, Fatima Road, Doowa Watte, and Dankanatte Para and for almost three weeks these families have been living in the class rooms.

“Our children are already having rashes, wounds and sore feet because they have to walk in the stagnant flood water,” said 63-year-old Camillus Fernando who is now at the school with his wife, daughter and grandson.

Camillus is disappointed that his grandson has lost all his school books.

“My little boy is very good in his studies, but this time when it flooded, the water level rose to eight feet.”

Camillus puts the books out to dry so that his grandson could read or copy them to another book.

All they ask is that the government officials clean up the Kalu-Ela (Mabole Ela) and construct the roads as it is due to this particular canal that areas such as as Namal Uyana, Fatima Road, Doowa Watte, and Dankanatte Para get flooded.