Amparai floods raise fears of displacement

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 November 2003, 04:35 GMT]
Floods caused by torrential rain in the Amparai district on Sunday and Monday have disrupted traffic on the Navithanveli-Kittanki road as the road is submerged in 4 ft of water. Officials fear that if the rain continues, there will be displacement of people in low-lying areas, sources in Amparai said.

The people of Navithanveli have to visit Kalmunai for their daily needs, and they travel through the Kittanki road for this, but the disruption of traffic by flooding has caused great difficulties to them.

The Navithanveli area has approximately 29,000 people from 6050 families. These families have no way of visiting Kalumunai now. Traveling by boat is said to be impossible because of the conditions on the river in the village, the sources said.

Mr. K. Gopalaratnam, the Navithanveli divisional secretary, said that continuing rain would cause great hardships to the people as they would be stranded in the area without any provisions for their daily lives.

Even in the Batticaloa district, some low-lying villages are affected by floods, sources said.