TSUNAMI IMPACT- SRI LANKA: One Room But Still a Home

By Amantha Perera Reprint | | Print |

Amantha Perera

WALAHANDUWA, Jul 19 2005 (IPS) - The rows of wooden houses, 12 kms from the coastal town of Galle seem out of place inside this state-owned rubber plantation and so do the people who once lived along the beach.

Outwardly it is a picture of harmony. Young children play indefatigably while a group of middle-aged women gossip near the only shop selling sundry goods.

But inside the one-room homes there is neither electricity nor running water. Toilets and bathrooms outside the temporary tin-sheet roofed houses have numbers written on their doorframes indicating who gets to use them.

Yet, for Prema Galapaththi the single-room house is heaven after being traumatised by the tsunami and spending the next five months in refugee camps and transit centres. ”I am happy here, this is home,” the homemaker, who moved here in May, told IPS.

Galapaththi and about a hundred other families owe their homes to Seva Lanka Foundation, a local NGO which located land large enough to construct temporary houses with the eventual aim of turning them into permanent residences .

”This is land closest to the beach that we could find,” Seva Lanka officials overseeing the camp said. Like Galapaththi, many of Walahanduwa’s new residents were the hardest hit by the tsunami and by bureaucratic bungling thereafter.

They were living within 100 metres from the shoreline, a zone the government declared a no-construction strip soon after the tragedy that left 31,000 dead and a million destitute in Sri Lanka. Of an estimated 88,000 houses destroyed, 55,000 were located inside the zone.

The zoning rule became contentious due to the scarcity of land and resistance among some of the victims to relocate. R Ariyasena saw no benefit in moving 12 kms inland, ”I am a fisherman, I have to stay close to beach to do my job,” he told IPS at a refugee camp in Galle town.

There are 30 families from the buffer zone still living in the camp. Nets, storage boxes and other fishing equipment litter the little space left outside the tents as if to send out a message.

Happy as she is with a roof over her head, Galapaththi is faced with a predicament similar to that of Ariyasena. Her husband is a fisherman and does not live in the new house.

”Boats leave around 2 pm and return early in the morning, so he has to stay in Galle,” she explained.

Her neighbour’s family too remains scattered. While the women occupy the new home, the men and children have stayed back in Galle for reasons of employment and education.

There is confusion over the buffer zone ruling. Soon after it was announced the government amended it to allow business premises within 100 metres of the coastline.

In May, following appeals by UN Special Tsunami Envoy and former US president Bill Clinton to be more flexible on the zoning rule, TAFREN, the main government task force coordinating the reconstruction effort said that a high level committee had been appointed to look into it.

”It (the zone) remains in place to the best of our knowledge, and we eagerly await the results of the Presidential Commission that is studying the question at the present time. As we have said, we hope the approach will be applied flexibly and with humanity,” Peter Harrold, World Bank Country Director in Sri Lanka said.

New housing schemes like Walahanduwa have also come under criticism for lack of planning. – We have not lived in such large housing projects. We have always been living in what is called the neighbourhood or cluster developments, ranging from about 25 to 30 houses, the neighbourhood is community based, where community space is important.

Many of the new housing projects have at least 100 houses being constructed and the number increases to 200, 300 or more. “At one of the places on the east coast 1800 houses are being planned. In the Sri Lankan tradition such housing complexes of this magnitude were not heard of,” Rukshan Widyalankara, president of the Sri Lanka Institute of Architects said.

The SLIA has not been consulted in developing plans for the new scheme and according to Widayalankara the plans have to encompass sewage disposal, impact on the local environment and availability of materials. ôThe house is not the only thing that matters, things such as road works, drains, sewer system are very important,” he said.

Already local wood prices have skyrocketed so much so that voluntary groups like the International Organisation of Migration and OXFAM are importing wood from Australia. Imports are said to also strict local environmental impact.

The Walahanduwa project is accessible only by a dirt track that snakes up a mountain. The residents still have to travel at least five kms to get to the nearest dispensary. However, according to Seva Lanka the plan is to develop such new projects into fully-equipped townships with schools, health and transport facilities.

TAFREN and other government agencies have also come under criticism for not consulting enough although one of the key principles (in the Tsunami Needs’ Assessment) was that of consultation, in order to keep those who suffered at the centre of the focus.

This has not always happened and tendency towards central planning has resulted in houses being constructed builder, land and services targeted and ready but the potential inhabitants not having a clue about what is going on and no one to listen to their preferences or convenience.

”This remains an area for improvement and one that we sense is moving – albeit slowly û in the right direction,” Harrold said. The Bank has also not been impressed with the slow phase of the reconstruction effort so far despite massive donor support.

Foreign donors pledged an unprecedented 3.5 billion US dollars for the effort in May.

Meanwhile, some of the refugees have begun constructing houses inside the buffer zone ignoring the rules. ”If people had waited around for governments to help, they would have been dead by now,” said Priyantha Gunesekera at Hadiwatte, south of Galle while repairing the roof of his house cum business premises that he built next to the beach.

Gunesekera might have the cover of his business. Others like V T Piyasena of Habarduwa are risking everything by reconstructing their new homes right where the old ones were destroyed by the tsunami.