22 Mullaitivu schools used as Welfare Centers- GA

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 January 2005, 12:26 GMT]
Out of the twenty three welfare centers in Mullaitivu district, all except one are located in schools in areas unaffected by the tsunmai, and there is an urgent need to relocate these centers to allow schools to function normally, said Emelda Sukumar, Government Agent of Mullaitivu district when TamilNet talked to her Tuesday.

"A total of 3314 families consisting of 11,993 individuals are being looked after in the welfare centers, and a further 2507 families with 10,576 individuals are stying with friends and relatives who also need additional support and help. An additional 186 families with 936 members have lost their means of livlihood making up a total of 6007 families that require urgent help in Mullaitivu district," the GA said.

"With the assistance of the TRO we have been able to attend to health issues, food, drinking water and clothing adequately to the people affected, but relocating the affected to other welfare centers remain our immediate pressing challenge," she added.

"We have identified 13 additional locations and work has begun to build temporary welfare centers, but we would want to ensure that health and water issues are adequately provisioned in these new centers before we relocate the people to the new centers.

"Halo Trust provided us with two bull dozers to clear the damage buildings and to reconstruct coastal roads. These machines have been returned and we are short of heavy machinery to continue clean up operations and to build roads," the GA said.

In addition to the recorded deaths of 2765 and 558 still not accounted for, we are afraid that people from other areas who had visited for the christmas and new year holidays may also have been affected by the disaster. "We have confirmed that one person each from Thalaiyadi, Vathirayan, Vettilaikerni, Valvettiturai, Thanankilappu, Point Pedro, Kankesanturai, Anaikottai, Uduthurai, Maruthankerni, Keeriamlai, Atchuvely, Chempianpattu, Chundikulam, Vavuniya, Kanakarayankulam, Amparai, Trincomalee and Pankulam have been killed. A further 3 people from Batticaloa and another person from Pesalai, Manner have also died totalling 25 men and 37 women from other districts have died in Mullaitivu. We will be forwarding this list to the GAs of appropriated districts," Ms Sukumar said.