Sri Lanka's coasts seem almost dead, more ghostly than ever<\/p>\n
Nadeera Seneviratne, The Island, Asia News Network, Colombo<\/p>\n
Along the coastal road in Sri Lanka's west, there was, before
\nthe tsunami, a row of houses, commercial and administrative
\nbuildings, and luxury hotels promising sun and surf. On the
\neastern belt, there's little property to be ravaged.<\/p>\n
This is more so in LTTE-held areas, where the little destroyed
\nis all the more important for the civilians. Approaching from the
\nnorth, the alpha 15 Trincomalee-Batticaloa road below
\nEachilampattu, before which there are two Sri Lankan Home Guard
\nand Army checkpoints followed by an LTTE checkpoint, is deserted.
\nThere's no transport, no telephone facilities, and no electricity
\n(as usual). And nobody on the road, except for UN and Red Cross
\njeeps and tractors.<\/p>\n
The people are in camps for the displaced. The tsunami had not
\nhit Verugal Aru where the ferry transported people and vehicles
\nacross the river. An LTTE member there said the tsunami damage
\nwas at Kathiraveli, although there were women and children at the
\nVerugal kovil by the river. These people, we were told, were the
\nfamilies of LTTE members, and were not displaced people.<\/p>\n
Across the river at Kandalady, Vakarai, at a camp managed by a
\n12 member committee comprising NGOs and government officials, 51
\npeople had died. Thirty two of them were female, and nineteen
\nmale. They did not have a figure for the number of children dead.
\nAround 690 people were living in the camp set up there. At
\nKathiraveli, there had been 57 deaths reported and around 1840
\npeople displaced. One child had been orphaned there according to
\nreports. At Bammivattaram, 54 persons had died, with around 900
\ndisplaced.<\/p>\n
There are many more dead, and many more camps. In the seven
\ncamps managed jointly by the Koralai Pattu North Development
\nUnion (KPNDU), more than 150 deaths had been recorded and nearly
\n3300 displaced families were being looked after. Nadarajah, who
\nworks for the KPNDU, said the 12 member committee that managed
\nthe camps comprised the grama sevaka, a Rural Development Society
\nrepresentative, Samurdhi official and KPNDU officers. He said
\nthere were no LTTE members in the committee, but one or two could
\nbe seen in the camps.<\/p>\n
The Red Cross and other UN members were also not represented
\non this committee, but visited the camps to provide relief
\nservices. At Kandalady, the Red Cross was distributing coupons
\nfor relief items among families in the camp. UNHCR tents were a
\ncommon sight in the camps, and water tanks donated by Oxfam and
\nthe Department of Social Services and water in polythene packets
\nprovided adequate water for most of the camps. On almost all
\nother items they faced a shortage at Kandalady, Nadarajah, who is
\nfrom Kathiraveli, said.<\/p>\n
Help is at hand. The UN is present, and Nadarajah said a
\nmudalali from Anuradhapura had come with water purification
\ntablets. A pastor had reportedly been working in the area since
\nDec. 26, the day the tsunami struck. Asked whether the LTTE had
\nintervened in any way, Nadarajah said they hadn't.<\/p>\n
He added that the Sri Lanka Army had taken over an IDP camp in
\nKadju Watta (in the Mankerni area and beyond Vakarai from the
\nnorth), but that it would be handed over to the KPNDU team soon.
\nHe implied that army control would be problematic. KPNDU has been
\npresent in the area for some years now, and receives funds from
\nAustralia, Nadarajah said. Their head office is in Colpetty.<\/p>\n
Nagarajah, a resident of Vakarai had been born in Polonnaruwa.
\nHe had lived in the east coast for thirty five years after
\nmarriage. He seemed happy to communicate in Sinhala. He said he
\nhad lost his fishing boat and all that went with it. On being
\ntold he would be given a new boat and fishing gear, he said
\nnothing, but looked cautiously hopeful.<\/p>\n
Kohomba trees in Vakarai were yellow and clumps of
\nunidentifiable brown skeletons of smaller trees marked the
\nlandscape. Along the road, building after building had been razed
\nto the ground.<\/p>\n
These were small constructions, and the even smaller and less
\nsolid coconut thatched houses had been swept away leaving little
\ntrace. The Kandalady Vaharai LTTE cemetery, and a kovil had been
\nbadly damaged by the tsunami, and through the gaping windows and
\ndoors of a church the sea was visible, its back wall having
\ntotally disappeared.<\/p>\n
A post office had been razed as well, but somebody seems to
\nhave propped up the name board saying Post Office, Vakarai. A
\nhospital newly built and yet to be occupied had suffered much
\ndamage. Unlike in the western and southern coasts of Sri Lanka,
\nthere were no signs of people returning to their homes.<\/p>\n
The Vakarai bridge on the Uppar lagoon was being renovated,
\nbut at slow pace. Work on the wide gaps had not begun, and
\nworkers were filling the holes in the bridge with brick from the
\ntsunami damaged buildings. The brick was being placed over rock
\nstones that had been newly placed.<\/p>\n
Supervisor Anton Selvarajah, of the Road Maintenance Company
\n(RMC) which he said had been contracted by the Valachchennai RDA
\noffice to renovate the bridge, said the supply of rock stones on
\nthe LTTE side of the bridge was low because of a short supply of
\ndynamite there.<\/p>\n
He said that at the other end, they would be able to complete
\nthe renovation with rock stones alone. Selvarajah said the brick
\nwould not be a problem. As the bridge was impassable, about four
\nboats served to carry passengers across the lagoon, and one of
\nthem had a TRO flag and another a KPNDU flag. Those two,
\nSelvarajah said, did not charge for their service, but the other
\ntwo did.<\/p>\n
The coast here seems almost dead. More ghostly than ever,
\nVakarai, where the people's main livelihood was fishing and
\nagriculture and where development has been hampered by Sri Lanka
\nArmy-LTTE battles and LTTE-Karuna battles, would take longer than
\nother tsunami affected areas to recover.<\/p>",
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