Resettled families in Vanni left to suffer in downpour

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 August 2010, 06:43 GMT]
Rains have been pouring down in Vanni for the last four days with the break of North East Monsoon in Sri Lanka and the resettled families sheltered under makeshift huts without proper roofing are left without any assistance to face the onslaught of the monsoon that will last until the end of December, Non-government Organization (NGO) representatives who visited Vanni said. Promises of constructing houses for the resettled families in Vanni by the Indian government and World Bank are yet to be fulfilled.

The metal sheets donated by India for roofing for the resettled civilians in Vanni have been distributed only to a few families and these are barely enough to construct a livable shelter.

Majority of the resettled families live under tarpaulin sheets over bare land without cement floor.

The war-ravaged families continue to live just as they did under tarpaulin sheets in the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) detention camps in Vavuniyaa.

Sri Lanka government authorities in Vanni have not assisted them in constructing shelters and the break of infectious diseases will soon claim many lives of the children and elderly, the NGO representatives warned.

They added that Sri Lanka government has permitted only a few NGOs to work in Vanni and that arrangements have not been made for them to independently distribute relief measures to the suffering families. Their services are either obstructed or controlled by Sri Lanka government, they said.

Meanwhile, the Governor of Northern Province, Major Gen. G. A. Chandrasiri told Monday Vanni Education authorities to close down the schools when they brought the matter of roofless schools functioning under trees.