UN agencies assist Sri Lanka government in flood relief

May 22,  The United Nations agencies have given their assistance to the Government of Sri Lanka to provide relief to over 600,000 people affected by the heavy flooding brought on by torrential pre-monsoon rains lashing the country for over a week.

According to the Disaster Management Center (DMC) as of this morning 606,072 people from 141,586 families have been displaced or affected by the floods in 14 districts. Colombo, Gampaha, and Kalutara districts in the Western Province are the hardest hit with the flooding.
The government has taken swift measures to provide relief to the flood victims with meals and dry rations. The Navy has deployed personnel and boats to assist with evacuations and delivery of assistance while the Sri Lanka Army has been assisting in transporting items to affected areas where access has been cut off.
A United Nations team comprising representatives from the World Food Program (WFP) and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in coordination with Sri Lanka's Disaster Management Center and Ministry of Economic Development visited two of the heavily affected districts in Western Province, Gampaha District on Wednesday (19) and Kalutara district on Thursday (20) to assess the situation.
The Government is to continue providing cooked meals for 3 days and dry rations for 7 days for those affected by the floods while the WFP is to provide dry food rations for 400,000 affected people for 4 days.
Meanwhile the Sri Lanka Red Cross Society (SLRCS) continues to assist in the Gampaha, Colombo, Kalutara, and Puttalam Districts by providing cooked meals and dry rations through the Village Disaster Management Committees.
The non-governmental organizations also have come to the aid of the flood victims, Sarvodaya has been providing 4,000 � 5,000 packets of cooked food on a daily basis to flood-affected persons in Gampaha, Colombo and Kalutara Districts for breakfast, lunch and dinner since 17 May 2010, the DMC said. Funds are currently available to continue meal distributions for another 2-3 days, it noted.
UNICEF, CARE International, World Vision, and Americares have provided drinking water, water purification tablets and sanitary needs to the flood affected.