GroundView Free first issue Price Rs 15.00 Volume 1 No. 1 January 2007 INSIDE Response to floods and landslides: voices from the regions Stopping the slide Page 5 Rising from the ashes Page 7 Cry Vaharai: on the run again Page 8 Are we prepared for Sweep stakes Pic by K.D. Dewapriya for survival Page 9 ANOTHER DISASTER? Puttalam By Prasad Poornamal We don’t want ‘buth packets.’ Jayamanna, Puttalam Settling where Building risk based planning into develop- S Sheela (33): “When Colombo Due to incessant rains which gets affected, roads and canals are displaced lasted a month, several reser- ment decisions and durable, resistant infra- fixed fast, because the ‘loku maha- voirs in the Udaha area in Put- structure are the needs of the hour and not thuru’ and ‘amithigollo’ (politicians Page 10 talam district overflowed, flood- and influential individuals) are there. ing a large area. The problem simply the allocations of millions of rupees Even with deaths and starvation no was aggravated by the fact that for relief activities after a disaster strikes. one hears our plight.Another flood flood waters from Kurunegala, will come and go with nothing being Shanty Kuliyapitiya, and Galgamuwa Puttalam District Secretary. Deduru Oya, Mee Oya and done.” had also entered the district en The most recent floods had- Lunu Oya were among the D A Mangala Priyantha (35): “The subculture route to the sea. displaced 16,000 families, fully reservoirs which overflowed. canal is yet to be repaired. We have Floods, which occurred on destroyed 250 houses, and par- The worst affected areas in the informed all the responsible author- Page 11 four occasions, had rendered tially damaged 10,000. Seven district were the villages in the ities, but to no avail. 650 acres of almost 200,000 families home- people, including three chil- Nattandiya and Halaawatha Di- paddy fields had been laid waste. less, according to H M Herath, dren, were killed. visional Secretariat areas and We can’t commence cultivation un- some villages in the Aarach- less the canal is repaired. We do chikattuwa area. A village in not want ‘buth packets.’ We want a Worst recorded floods in recent history Wennappuwa is still underwa- solution that will save us from the ter and it is reported that the next disaster’. houses submerged for a month Chaamili Wickramasingha, Gampaha Gampaha W M Wimladarama (33): “We are about to collapse. The pub- don’t want relief. We need to start As the clouds of war looming over our little island na- Biyagama, Dompe and Kelaniya which have been af- lic had complained that there cultivation. Help us gain our liveli- tion are getting darker and darker, the forces to nature fected in the floods in the past , have had an extra heavy had never been a proper drain- hood” seem to be striking us harder and harder. dose of floods this time. age system in this village, said H A Sumanawansa (49): “The As thousands of innocent peoples’ lives are being For the first time, the Colombo – Negombo road was Dr R M S K Rathnyake, the Duwa dam canal was not main- shattered by the brutal darts of war, thousands of other badly under water. The Colombo – Katunayake highway North West Regional Director tained properly. helpless men, women and children are becoming vic- which is a barrier for proper drainage of water was also of Health Services. There had With a little money the canal could tims of the angry elements of nature. affected and transportation was hindered. The entire in- been an outbreak of infectious have been maintained and there The recent intermonsoonal rains have brought misery vestment zone and even the Colombo International Air- diseases and mosquito spread would have been no need to spend to many. Earthslips, landslides and floods have caused port did not escape the devastation caused by floods. diseases like Malaria, Dengue so much money now. The govern- havoc in the lives of numerous Sri Lankans throughout Since the floods of 1947, floods were last experienced and Chikungunya. About 7000 ment lacks planning.” the country. The Gampaha District which in the past suf- in the Gampaha District in 1989. The 1989 floods were people had had fever in the Kal- R Sriyanthi (40): “Millions worth fered little due to floods, has been severely affected by the result of excavation of the rocky plains at the mouth pitya peninsula. Even though of sand is collected from the Deduru awareness programs on con- the recent outbursts of nature. of the Kelaniya River, the development of the Castlereigh Oya with the help of local politicians. trolling infectious diseases Some 34,489 families have been displaced, totalling and Laxapana reservoirs and the widening and deepen- The soil of Deduru Oya belongs to it 124,410 affected people and 2,400 partially or com- ing of the Kelani River by the extraction of sand. were on, infectious diseases had spread rapidly. Govern- only, and is not meant to help con- pletely damaged properties. The recent floods have been acknowledged as the struct buildings in Colombo. Those For the first time in recent history, Ja-Ela, Kotahena most severe natural disaster experienced by the people ment officials, who volunteered to help the patients, themselves who live in palaces give us a slice and Wattala which have hitherto been affected a little by of the Gampaha District in their recent history. of bread, show that on T.V, and strut floods were not spared the ravages of the furious rains. Contd on pg 4 fell sick. Contd on pg 4 about as great social workers.” GroundView SAVING SRI LANKA FROM DISASTER: No. 30/81, Longdon Place, Colombo 07, Sri Lanka. Let’s go back to the drawing Tel/fax: (94-11) 2506855, 2598413 Beyond the board (once again) Sri Lanka that enjoyed in this larger social trans- one of the highest stan- formation need. In a way, news and from dard of living in Asia and this has to be construed as a very high per capita in- a crisis of our present post- come in 1948 at the time colonial state and society, the ground of Independence is today which needs a total recon- lagging behind as one of struction. Nevertheless the e are happy to announce the Asia’s poorest. Whereas State is in such a parlous launching of Groundview countries such as Malay- condition that it cannot be – a bimonthly tabloid that sia and India were able to truly reformed but to estab- W leverage their ethnic di- lish totally new state. will give space to voices from the districts. Through these different versities to attain stability That the Sri Lankan and prosperity, all admin- state is not in a position voices and perspective we hope to istrations that governed to be reformed is evident go behind the news stories to under- this country since Inde- in its inability to material- stand some of the problems we Sri pendence have dragged ize any reforms proposed Lankans face and through this raise it towards today’s ‘civil during the past 20 years. awareness of what is being done and war’ situation, primarily The abject failure to imple- what needs to be done. due to their sheer inabil- ment fully the 13th and the The first issue of Groundview fo- ity to effectively manage 17th Amendments clearly cuses on rain-related natural disas- its ethnic diversity. Sri shows that this state can- Lanka’s political parties not be reformed. Thus the ters which occured over the last two have not only failed to only available alternative months. When we commissioned stem the tide of war and is to reconstruct the state of the stories little did we know the create a peaceful environ- Sri Lanka. It will be a solu- spate of floods and landslides would ment, but also allowed the tion to the crisis facing the continue re-displacing some com- country to drift towards Sri Lankan state as well as munities and affecting others who instability that has in that facing the LTTE. had escaped the first time. While turn led to disintegration The necessary trans- the victims of the disaster wanted in the economic, social GROUNDING formation immediate assistance they also had and cultural spheres and the creeping collapse of l An honest inquiry their eyes fixed on more permanent the Sri Lankan State. By Shiral Lakthilake must be made into the rea- solutions to the problem of floods There is a danger of the sons for the failure of the and landslides. There is clearly a country being pushed to- hand, the LTTE finds itself Lankan society have also state and the causes that need for new studies to look at the wards another full-scale in such a situation that it contributed towards the contributed to the collapse problem but there are some solu- war without any thought cannot either be integrat- difficulty in achieving so- of the Legislature, the Ex- tions which are by no means new being given to its terrible ed into the State through lutions to our problems. A ecutive and the Judiciary and are more or less common knowl- consequences and both the a political solution or sur- wide chasm exists not only must be identified. l The Public Ser- government and the LTTE vive in a separate state. among the Sinhala, Tamil edge. The authorities however have vice must be made into a appear to be preparing at In fact, Sri Lankan soci- and Muslim communities not taken tough measures to imple- service-oriented institu- the maximum level for ety exists and functions in a but also between the upper ment existing regulations.