OCHA Situation Report
Sri Lanka
25-29 March 2005


Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

Situation

The tsunami death toll in Sri Lanka is 31,229 as of 28 March, with an 
additional 4,100 missing and presumed dead, according to the Ministry of 
Women's Empowerment and Social Welfare. It reports that 500,000 people 
are still displaced, with 420,212 of them now living with friends and 
relatives. Displaced persons living in welfare centers and camps total 
95,926.

Within an hour or so of the 28 March, 8.7 Richter-scale earthquake in 
Indonesia, Sri Lankan communities had been informed by television, 
radio, government authorities and UN agencies and NGOs about a potential 
tsunami and quickly headed inland with panic occurring in some areas. 
OCHA field officers and field staff of UN agencies and NGOs supported 
the government in providing information to the residents of 
tsunami-affected areas and in communication alerts. OCHA's field 
officers in Galle, Batticaloa, Ampara and Kilinochchi provided on-going 
information updates throughout the nights. Here is an update from Galle 
and Batticaloa which reflects events in most tsunami-affected areas 
during the late night tsunami alert.

>From the OCHA Field Office Galle District: At 23.15 hours news of the
earthquake in Indonesia came through international news channels to 
Galle. In most districts in the South police quickly announced via 
megaphones that people should move to higher ground. In Galle, some 
panic ensued in places including Hikkaduwa divisions. Streets were 
jammed with cars heading inland. In some areas in Galle, according to 
UNICEF and other agencies, people sought higher ground near hotels but 
were turned away because of crowding. Many people in both Galle and 
Matara sought shelter on the high ground around temples. During the peak 
moment of the evacuations inland in Galle District, the Dialog GSM 
network was not operating. SMSs were able to be received and sent but 
only sporadically and with delays. Landlines were also not working due 
to the congestion, many people were waiting around outside their homes 
in the Fort area, the coast area and in the hills waiting for further 
news and directions. The megaphones proved to be an effective way of 
communication to the community but telephone calls within the area 
between Matara, Galle and Hambantota were for the most part impossible. 
The situation provided a good drill for the community and agencies and 
an opportunity to fine tune disaster preparedness planning. The UN 
Agencies in the Southern Province are planning to establish a security 
phone tree and are considering the needs for satellite phone 
communication in the South.

>From the OCHA Field Office Batticaloa District: Shortly after 21:00 
hours, OCHA Colombo informed OCHA Batticaloa about the earthquake and 
possible tsunami. OCHA Batticaloa informed the UNDP/UNV representatives 
to contact the Government Agent for Batticaloa and also contacted the UN 
Focal Point. Information exchange continued between OCHA and the 
UNDP/UNV until the cell phone and landline network broke down at 
midnight. The UN Focal Point started transmitting BBC updates via VHF, 
conducted a radio check, and requested all UN staff to remain on 
standby. The government authorities had immediately been deployed with 
police and military informing people to move inland, controlled crowd 
movements and provided transport to relocate people from the coastal 
areas -- notably Kallady, Kallar, Dutch Bar, and Onthanchimadam. They 
also facilitated their movement through buses further inland into the 
city. Army officers on motorbikes made the rounds and requested everyone 
to move away from coastal areas to the town. With only one access route 
-- the Kallady Bridge -- thousands of people were trying to 
simultaneously cross causing minor motorbike accidents. People were 
afraid and the tension was high. Many sought refuge in churches and 
stayed there long after the danger of a tsunami had receded. By 4am it 
was clear from what we were hearing through UN channels and TV that the 
threat of a tsunami to Sri Lanka had passed. Most shops remained closed 
today and only a few students went to school. There remains fear amongst 
some residents that the danger has not passed. The general perception in 
Batticaloa is that the response of the government was good in warning 
people and passing on relevant information quickly.

Overview of Activities

One-hundred and fifty-five houses were constructed at two sites in 
Vadamaradchchi East by the Tamil Relief Organization with the support of 
World Vision and Care International.

On 28 March, Mr. Tilak Ranaviraja, Head of the Taskforce for Relief 
(TAFOR) accompanied by a U.S. delegation led by Ms. Mary Eisenhower -- 
granddaughter of the late former U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower -- 
visited Transitional Accommodation Project (TAP) offices and held 
meetings with NGOs in Matara and Galle Districts. The U.S. delegation 
was looking at business and investment prospects in tsunami-affected 
areas.

On March 22, FAO handed over the first batch of a total 47,650 fishing 
nets worth $US1.36 million (Rs135,587,912) to Sri Lankan fishermen who 
lost their livelihoods in the tsunami. The governments of Japan, Germany 
and Belgium paid for the equipment through their joint programmes with 
the FAO. The first set of 740 nets and accompanying accessories for 
catching lobster, trenched sardines and frigate mackerel are earmarked 
for Hambantota and will be distributed through the Ministry of Fisheries 
and Aquatic Resources. The specific types of nets were chosen after 
consultation with local fishermen.

An FAO international salinisation expert has completed an assessment of 
all the main tsunami-hit areas to determine the condition of the soil. 
Ampara, Batticaloa and Trincomalee have all had rain since the disaster 
and in these areas the soil is ready for cultivation again even though 
it might not be possible to obtain 100 percent yields.

All schools in the Batticaloa district have been reopened and catch-up 
classes have started. One of the major obstacles remains the lack of 
information on where the majority of the population will return/relocate 
to so as to plan for schools in these areas. Catch-up classes supported 
by Save the Children have started this week in 110 centres in Batticaloa 
District -- 50 in Batticaloa, 21 in Paddiruppu, and 39 in Kalkudah. The 
YMCA in Batticaloa has also started catch-up classes.

The Norwegian Refugee Council is rebuilding and rehabilitating 10 
schools damaged by the tsunami in Batticaloa district. A psycho-social 
program is being developed for training of teachers, and selected 
teachers from all schools to be rehabilitated by NRC will be offered 
psychosocial training

The Protection/Psycho-social Task Force discussed the "worrying number 
of violent incidents in the camps" and has recommended that a prevention 
mechanism be

developed which should include, amongst other things, the forming of 
women's groups to raise the specific concerns of women in the camps. 
Women's Coalition for Disaster Management (WCDM) and UNHCR will follow 
up on this recommendation. Moreover, the Task Force has also suggested 
that the house damage assessment teams should include women. In order to 
better understand the shelter/reconstruction policies.

Main Challenges and Response

The Human Rights Commission's Disaster Relief Monitoring Unit visited 
Trincomalee from 23 to 25 March.  The Unit has now received more than 
125 complaints from individuals and groups reporting discrimination or 
other problems with assistance.  The Unit has convened a Working Group 
on Relief Monitoring, bringing together leading civil society networks 
to facilitate more systematic monitoring and sharing of information from 
the field.

The Chairperson of the Task Force for Relief, Mr. Tilak Ranaviraja, has 
asked the Human Rights Commission and Senior Human Rights Advisor to 
develop an options paper on possible systems for recovering and 
cataloguing photographic and forensic evidence that would facilitate 
identification of unidentified persons buried in mass graves.


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