Sri Lanka's coasts seem almost dead, more ghostly than ever

Sri Lanka's coasts seem almost dead, more ghostly than ever

Nadeera Seneviratne, The Island, Asia News Network, Colombo

Along the coastal road in Sri Lanka's west, there was, before
the tsunami, a row of houses, commercial and administrative
buildings, and luxury hotels promising sun and surf. On the
eastern belt, there's little property to be ravaged.

This is more so in LTTE-held areas, where the little destroyed
is all the more important for the civilians. Approaching from the
north, the alpha 15 Trincomalee-Batticaloa road below
Eachilampattu, before which there are two Sri Lankan Home Guard
and Army checkpoints followed by an LTTE checkpoint, is deserted.
There's no transport, no telephone facilities, and no electricity
(as usual). And nobody on the road, except for UN and Red Cross
jeeps and tractors.

The people are in camps for the displaced. The tsunami had not
hit Verugal Aru where the ferry transported people and vehicles
across the river. An LTTE member there said the tsunami damage
was at Kathiraveli, although there were women and children at the
Verugal kovil by the river. These people, we were told, were the
families of LTTE members, and were not displaced people.

Across the river at Kandalady, Vakarai, at a camp managed by a
12 member committee comprising NGOs and government officials, 51
people had died. Thirty two of them were female, and nineteen
male. They did not have a figure for the number of children dead.
Around 690 people were living in the camp set up there. At
Kathiraveli, there had been 57 deaths reported and around 1840
people displaced. One child had been orphaned there according to
reports. At Bammivattaram, 54 persons had died, with around 900
displaced.

There are many more dead, and many more camps. In the seven
camps managed jointly by the Koralai Pattu North Development
Union (KPNDU), more than 150 deaths had been recorded and nearly
3300 displaced families were being looked after. Nadarajah, who
works for the KPNDU, said the 12 member committee that managed
the camps comprised the grama sevaka, a Rural Development Society
representative, Samurdhi official and KPNDU officers. He said
there were no LTTE members in the committee, but one or two could
be seen in the camps.

The Red Cross and other UN members were also not represented
on this committee, but visited the camps to provide relief
services. At Kandalady, the Red Cross was distributing coupons
for relief items among families in the camp. UNHCR tents were a
common sight in the camps, and water tanks donated by Oxfam and
the Department of Social Services and water in polythene packets
provided adequate water for most of the camps. On almost all
other items they faced a shortage at Kandalady, Nadarajah, who is
from Kathiraveli, said.

Help is at hand. The UN is present, and Nadarajah said a
mudalali from Anuradhapura had come with water purification
tablets. A pastor had reportedly been working in the area since
Dec. 26, the day the tsunami struck. Asked whether the LTTE had
intervened in any way, Nadarajah said they hadn't.

He added that the Sri Lanka Army had taken over an IDP camp in
Kadju Watta (in the Mankerni area and beyond Vakarai from the
north), but that it would be handed over to the KPNDU team soon.
He implied that army control would be problematic. KPNDU has been
present in the area for some years now, and receives funds from
Australia, Nadarajah said. Their head office is in Colpetty.

Nagarajah, a resident of Vakarai had been born in Polonnaruwa.
He had lived in the east coast for thirty five years after
marriage. He seemed happy to communicate in Sinhala. He said he
had lost his fishing boat and all that went with it. On being
told he would be given a new boat and fishing gear, he said
nothing, but looked cautiously hopeful.

Kohomba trees in Vakarai were yellow and clumps of
unidentifiable brown skeletons of smaller trees marked the
landscape. Along the road, building after building had been razed
to the ground.

These were small constructions, and the even smaller and less
solid coconut thatched houses had been swept away leaving little
trace. The Kandalady Vaharai LTTE cemetery, and a kovil had been
badly damaged by the tsunami, and through the gaping windows and
doors of a church the sea was visible, its back wall having
totally disappeared.

A post office had been razed as well, but somebody seems to
have propped up the name board saying Post Office, Vakarai. A
hospital newly built and yet to be occupied had suffered much
damage. Unlike in the western and southern coasts of Sri Lanka,
there were no signs of people returning to their homes.

The Vakarai bridge on the Uppar lagoon was being renovated,
but at slow pace. Work on the wide gaps had not begun, and
workers were filling the holes in the bridge with brick from the
tsunami damaged buildings. The brick was being placed over rock
stones that had been newly placed.

Supervisor Anton Selvarajah, of the Road Maintenance Company
(RMC) which he said had been contracted by the Valachchennai RDA
office to renovate the bridge, said the supply of rock stones on
the LTTE side of the bridge was low because of a short supply of
dynamite there.

He said that at the other end, they would be able to complete
the renovation with rock stones alone. Selvarajah said the brick
would not be a problem. As the bridge was impassable, about four
boats served to carry passengers across the lagoon, and one of
them had a TRO flag and another a KPNDU flag. Those two,
Selvarajah said, did not charge for their service, but the other
two did.

The coast here seems almost dead. More ghostly than ever,
Vakarai, where the people's main livelihood was fishing and
agriculture and where development has been hampered by Sri Lanka
Army-LTTE battles and LTTE-Karuna battles, would take longer than
other tsunami affected areas to recover.