OCHA Situation Report
Sri Lanka
11 - 23 March 2006


Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

Overall Situation

UNDP's Resident Representative in Sri Lanka, Miguel Bermeo, and the 
Chairman of the Disaster Relief Monitoring Unit (DMRU), Lionel Fernando, 
handed over the People's Consultations report to President Mahinda 
Rajapakse on 13 March. The consultations were done over a three month 
period from July 2005 and covered over 800 Grama Niladari (GN) Divisions 
in over 1,100 villages in 13 tsunami-affected districts.  It was the 
first of its kind conducted in Sri Lanka to ascertain the needs and 
interests of tsunami-affected people. The project was funded by Germany 
and Norway.

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) is doing assessments of transitional 
shelter sites throughout the Trincomalee district for potential care and 
maintenance work. They are having bi-lateral meetings with agencies that 
have constructed and managed transitional shelter sites, but are 
planning to withdraw from Care and Maintenance. After the discussions 
and assessment, NRC will undertake this work according to their 
capacity.

Main challenges and response

There is an urgent need for toilets at the Sumethagamam pre-school in 
Trincomalee district according to People in Need (PIN). There are no 
toilets in the actual building but some directly behind the pre-school 
which are full and leaking into the children's playground.

Coordination and common services

FAO, GTZ, UNDP, PIN, Oxfam, ZOA, ACF and OCHA in Trincomalee district 
met on 15 March to discuss DS divisional level coordination. It has been 
planned to have DS level coordination meetings chaired by the DS of the 
respective division. The agencies will facilitate meetings and share 
information. OCHA will provide support and collect information to 
support coordination.

MSF France recently engaged in a tour of the North and East of Sri Lanka 
and assessed the situation in case of a complex emergency.

In Ampara district only three NGO coordination meetings are held for the 
11 tsunami-affected divisions in Ampara district. OCHA along with lead 
agencies will work on this. IOM took the initiative to hold a meeting on 
care and maintenance in Ampara district since there is still no lead 
agency on this.

In Killinochchi OCHA has been requested to update the Status of 
Construction Document, complied in January, to compare government and 
LTTE statistics.

Over 200 people, in Chettikulam division, Vavuniya district benefited 
from a mobile clinic on legal aid organized by Norwegian Refugee Council 
(NRC) on March 6 and 13.

NRC's Site Management Training Project conducted two rounds of learning 
workshops on the implementation of site management in the post-tsunami 
Sri Lankan context recently, in accordance with international standards 
and guidelines.

Health

Merlin in Ampara organized a health coordination meeting with the Deputy 
Provincial Director of Health Services (DPDHS), Medical Officer of 
Health (MOH), Public Health Inspector (PHI) and Zonal Director of 
Education (ZDE) to discuss the School Health Programme. The aim of this 
programme is to promote health facilities in schools. A total of 74 
schools which were not included on the UNICEF and World Vision 
programmes were identified and will receive assistance.

IOM continued its eye camp from 13-15 March with help from the Sri 
Lankan Red Cross and Australian Red Cross for all tsunami-affected DS 
Divisions in Matara. Community Based Organization representatives of the 
UNDP Strong Places Programme are helping to disseminate the message 
among the community and help to contact beneficiaries individually. 
About 10,000 people were screened and all the beneficiaries will be 
directed to proper treatment.

A Public Health Team of Christian Children's Fund organized a health 
awareness program on Child Centered Space (CCS) Polhena, Matara on 16 
March where 25 children aged 13-18 participated.

In Batticaloa the Center for Accessibility, Mobilization and Information 
on Disability (CAMID) had its second Disability Actors coordination 
meeting on 22 March 2006. In addition to reporting on progress, this 
forum determined an action plan targeting the parents/families of 
disabled children. Parents will be consulted/integrated in every 
decision/action taken in favour of disabled children. This new approach 
is a pilot project that should reduce the isolation of those families 
and support their integration within the community.

Water and sanitation

Red Cross Red Crescent is identifying viable and sustainable 
alternatives to current costly emergency water purification and 
distribution of 672m3/day in tsunami-affected areas.  Well cleaning 
projects along coastal areas and the monsoon rains have contributed to 
improving the regular water supply. The coastal aquifer has largely 
recovered and many existing wells are providing fresh water again. 
Demand for treated and tanked water is decreasing proportionally as 
these existing water sources recover. A two phased programme will 
evaluate current water needs and sources by district and identify 
appropriate alternatives to the current water provision.

There is an improvement in water quality monitoring in some DS Divisions 
in Trincomalee. Oxfam have planned to test the water quality in 
Kuchavelai DS division. Currently ICRC is checking salinity in 
Eachlampattai on a bi-weekly basis.

In Killinochchi Oxfam will start a campaign to get public support to 
construct compost toilets in villages. This is being supported in 
tsunami villages and UNICEF intends to build 25 compost toilets as a 
trial.

IOM reported that they have completed the construction of 30 individual 
toilets in Matara this last week. IOM Ampara started the construction of 
51 new toilets, one community dug well and two toilet upgrades and 11 
well upgrades during the period mentioned.

UNICEF is supporting the construction of 1,000 rainwater harvesting 
systems in Galle and Matara through funding from USAID.  On 22 March, 
coinciding with World Water Day, the Lanka Rainwater Harvesting Forum, 
responsible for the construction, organized a ceremony for the handing 
over of the first 23 Rainwater Harvesting Systems to the beneficiaries.

Non-food items and shelter

A meeting on the Care and Maintenance issue called and facilitated by 
OCHA and TAP (Transitional Accommodation Project) in order to assess the 
needs and identify the gaps in care and maintenance of transitional 
shelter. Unfortunately the meeting was attended only by few 
organizations. Nevertheless an immediate action plan has been developed 
to provide a complete overview of the situation in the field.

Red Cross Red Crescent Movement now has land available for construction 
of 8,269 homes on 68 sites in 11 districts.

As of 1 March, 401 houses have been handed over to IDPs in Ampara 
district, 224 houses are complete and ready to be handed over. After the 
relaxation of the buffer zone only 4,465 houses need to be built by 
donors under the donor driven housing programme.

Out of a planned 3,420 permanent house construction in Ampara, only 327 
units have been completed in the district. There is a significant delay 
in the construction of permanent houses and the Ampara Government Agent 
asked donors to start on construction immediately at the Construction 
Task Force meeting on 15 March.

IOM Jaffna started construction on 100 permanent houses for IDPs in 
Atchuvely, Jaffna last week.  A group of displaced fisher families will 
get new houses with land instead of their original homes which come 
under the High Security Zone. IOM intends to provide 500 houses in that 
location for the fisher community.

In the Killinochchi district ZOA is going to create an excel sheet with 
current prices for construction material and the cost of skilled and 
unskilled laborers to circulate to sectoral agencies for their comments. 
OCHA agreed to bring the price fixing committee reports from the Jaffna 
district secretariat where they fix prices annually.

TRO handed over to beneficiaries the first 15 permanent houses completed 
in Kallappadu, Mullaitivu in Killinochchi district.

At the transitional shelter working group meeting in Matara IOM informed 
that they have prepared an estimate for the maintenance of the shelters 
and followed up design work done by the National Housing Development 
Authority for the next nine months. They also revised the work programme 
for the Thotamuna Community Centre building with the District Planning 
department.

Thirty five permanent houses completed by the SambaraGamuwa Provincial 
council, were handed over to beneficiaries in Hambantota district on 11 
March.

A handing over ceremony of 6 double cabs and 3 ambulances worth 23.5 
million procured through UNICEF using funds donated by Japan was held at 
the Ministry of Health Compound on 22 March. These are the first batch 
of vehicles out of a total of 6 ambulances and 19 double cabs amounting 
to Rupees 65.3 million provided by UNICEF under Japanese assistance to 
the tsunami-affected districts.

Education

There were some problems in land allocation for the permanent school and 
hospital construction in Thiraimadu Batticaloa but things have been 
resolved and UNOPS initiated the ground works for the construction of 
the school. Instead of the damaged Navalady Namahal Vidyalaya a new 
school will be built in Thiraimadu relocation site with UNICEF funding.

People in Need (PIN) has called for tenders for the construction of a 
pre-school in Naduoothu, Trincomalee district. The new building will be 
on the same site as the first 40 houses constructed by PIN. PIN has 
already finished construction of four other Pre-schools.

Three months' masonry training for tsunami-affected youth of Muttur east 
was conducted by the Pattalipuram Poonchcholai People's Development 
(PPDO) Organization, with financial assistance from UK-based Christian 
Aid organization.

So far 35 schools have been identified in Ampara district to initiate 
the child friendly concept. UNICEF the lead agency along with WFP and 
FAO are trying to implement a school home garden system in the selected 
35 schools.

On 16 March UNICEF in collaboration with the Zonal Director for 
Education organized meetings with parents in Eravur Pattu division in 
order to develop awareness on the importance of education. Currently 
UNICEF, though the Zonal Director for Education is in the process of 
finalizing the proposals for 2006 on education and adolescent programmes 
in Batticaloa District.

Twenty Sinhala Master Trainers, supported in a Training of Trainers 
training programme in February 2006, implemented the first training on 
the UNICEF developed materials on Creative Activities with Children and 
Managing Disasters - School Safety Plan programme for 89 selected 
teachers from across the island.  The selected teachers participated in 
a four day training nine through 12 March 2006 at the English Teachers 
Training College at Peradeniya, Kandy.

To address the sustainability of a programme to mainstream psycho-social 
well-being through the school system in partnership with the Ministry of 
Education, the Psychosocial Intervention and Counselling Unit has 
planned orientation programmes for provincial and zonal Ministry of 
Education and Provincial Department of Education staff on the programme.

OCHA Killinochchi reports that schools in the Vanni and Jaffna in the 
north east were not in session as the Tamil Teachers Association 
organized a protest to demand six requests from the government. The 
teachers protested against discrimination in salary increases; military 
presence in the vicinity of schools and demanded equal status in 
government service.

SevaLanka organized a library book donating progaramme for the 18 
tsunami-affected libraries in all four Divisions in Matara.

IOM is supporting Children's World International to conduct 
entertainment shows in tsunami-affected communities in Ampara, 
Batticaloa and Trincomalee. It is estimated that in Batticaloa alone, 
more than 2,000 children and parents benefited from the shows held over 
three days. IOM provides transport for staff and equipment, logistical 
support (booking of rooms, informing communities, organizing performance 
locations etc.) and also provides refreshments to participants at some 
shows.

Livelihoods

Three New Enterprise Project Ideas (NEPIs) were prepared by ILO in 
consultation with communities in Sengamam, Pottuvil and handed over to 
the Social Welfare Organisation of Ampara District (SWOAD) to pursue the 
implementation of training. In addition, 25 Divisional Project Officers 
of SWOAD were given orientation on the ILO (Skills Development for 
Economic Empowerment and Creation of Livelihoods) project CB-TREE 
Methodology. Training is to be conducted for identified families in the 
first week of April 2006.

On March 10, FAO provided two 42 horse power inboard engines to 
beneficiaries constructing new multi-day boats at the Neil Marine 
boatyard in Negombo which are destined for Matara.  This was part of 
FAO's Italian Civil Protection Department Funded project which is 
providing 65 inboard engines to tsunami-affected fishers who are 
rebuilding their boats after having lost them in the tsunami. On 
February 24, FAO distributed in Kalutara four 15-horse power outboard 
motors to fishers who had lost their engines due to the tsunami, and on 
March 2, FAO distributed 15 9.9-horse power outboard motors in 
Trincomalee.  These two distributions which where activities of FAO's 
project funded by the government of Belgium will ensure that at least 38 
tsunami-affected fishers resume their livelihoods.

Sixty five goats and seven cattle were provided in Muttur, Eachlampattai 
and Kinniya DS divisions to boost livelihood capacity. Meanwhile World 
Vision distributed 600 perennial crops including jack fruit, coconut, 
and mango in Elangathurai, Eachchilampattai in Tricomalee district. 
World Vision is coordinating with Action Contre La Faim on livelihood 
activities such as paddy seed, perennial crop, small business grant, and 
chicken distributions to avoid the duplication in Paddalipuram, Muthur, 
and Elangathurai, Eachchilampattai.

Information collection is currently ongoing for RADA divisional 
livelihood planning. This is an important initiative and brings together 
INGOs, NGOs, local government, finance sector, private sector. RADA/ILO 
is establishing itself well both at the district level and at the nine 
tsunami-affected divisional levels in Ampara district. Challenges faced 
include low participation in some divisions by NGOs, low participation 
in some divisions by government, lack of baseline data in all livelihood 
sectors. In addition, capacity of livelihood officers appointed by RADA 
at the divisional level needs to be built up.

On 15 March IOM trained 29 beneficiaries from Panichenkerni in 
Batticaloa district on "Business Development" through "Independent 
Marketing Research Service". IOM has trained 75 beneficiaries on 
business development so far. The aim of the trainings is to develop 
knowledge on record keeping, upgrading and marketing research.

Through the IOM's livelihood development programme, six beneficiaries 
were given working capital. They have been provided with tools and 
equipment for small enterprises like string hopper making, spice 
grinding, cement flower pot making, beetle selling.

ILO-IRTAP (Income Recovery Technical Assistance Programme) and the 
Reconstruction and Development Agency (RADA) organised a technical 
review meeting with District Livelihood Teams from nine districts 17 and 
18 March. The main objective of this meeting is to review the progress 
of livelihood activities achieved by the District teams and to 
strengthen the district operation and exchange experiences and examples 
of best practices.

The International Federation of The Red Cross reports that three 
Vocational Training programmes, in tiling, wall painting, landscaping, 
aluminium partitioning and carpentry power tools for 100 participants 
have been completed in Kalutara, Galle and Matara Districts. A total of 
875 people have now been trained in skills ranging from tiling, wall 
painting, landscaping, aluminium partitioning and carpentry power tools. 
By the end of April 1,375 people in total will have received training 
and appropriate tool kits.  Impact assessments are now underway in 
Kalutara to see how the new tools and skills have been put to use.

Protection

A conference organized by Department of Probation and Childcare reported 
that sixty per cent of the nearly 8,500 children currently sheltered in 
168 children homes in the North East were driven out of their homes due 
to poverty. Each Probation and Childcare Officer of the Provincial 
Department of Probation and Childcare has to serve six to seven 
divisions. This has led to a serious breakdown in the monitoring of 
children's homes and childcare activities by the department. Ninety-five 
of the 168 children's homes in the North East are not registered with 
government authorities. In the north-east about 741 children lost both 
their parents to the tsunami, while 2,580 children lost one parent. 
Meanwhile two to three thousand newly born babies in the 
Eachchilampattai division, south of Trincomalee district, are not 
registered with government authorities due to transport difficulties and 
lack of awareness.

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