Over 250,000 affected by rains and floods

Saturday, 5 February 2011 02:19 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

By Shezna Shums

Six persons died following the recent rains and floods that affected nine districts around the island while two people have been reported missing.

The Disaster Management Centre (DMC) yesterday afternoon said that 262, 553 families numbering 642, 165 persons had been affected by the rains.

According to the DMC statistics 895 houses had been fully damaged while a total of 6,787 houses had been partially damaged.

The rains and floods that lashed the country for the last few days forced many people to evacuate their homes and take shelter in 430 IDP camps set up in their respective divisions.The IDP camps provide shelter to a total of 139, 391 persons from 37,675 families.

According to the Ministry of Disaster Management, the government has already allocated Rs. 38 million to the District Secretaries of affected areas.

Overall the government has spent Rs 289.5 million on flood relief for the people affected by the rains and floods.

Recent rains in these areas caused flooding of some paddy lands and other agricultural lands located close to the reservoirs and tanks.

The damage caused to paddy and other agricultural crops may cause further escalation of the prices of vegetables and fruits. Previously the rains destroyed local onion cultivations and resulted in the prices of onion and other crops escalating.