Over one million flooded out

23 dead; over 80,000 hectares of agricultural lands destroyed; one-third of rice crop at risk of loss

By Shezna Shums

Over one million people have been affected by the current floods while 23 persons have died as of yesterday.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture, over 80,000 hectares of agricultural lands have been destroyed, which includes paddy, fruits and vegetables. An accurate calculation of destroyed agricultural lands will only be provided once the rains cease.

The National Disaster Management Centre in its latest statistics issued yesterday indicated that approximately 1,081,819 people were affected by the floods from a total of 287, 871 families.

The number of deaths following these recent natural disasters stands at 23 while the number of injured persons is 36, while one person remains missing.

The centre also noted that a total of 2,680 houses had been fully damaged while 15,274 houses were partially damaged.

There are a total of 591 IDP camps located in the affected districts, providing shelter to 325,348 affected persons from a total of 83,722 families.

The Ministry of Cooperatives and Internal Trade stated that the public should not fear food shortages as a Ministry decision had taken to release a buffer stock of 200,000 metric tonnes of paddy, which was maintained for emergencies.

Although there is a shortage of vegetables in the market owing to some being destroyed and farmers not wanting to transport goods, the Ministry is sending its own lorries to the farmers to transport the vegetables to the 14 major economic centres located around the country.

Media Spokesperson Nipun Ekanayake said that within the week the vegetable shortage problem would be sorted out.

“We are directly buying from the farmers in order to control the prices of vegetables,” he said.

It was also highlighted that President Mahinda Rajapaksa has instructed that buffer stocks of all essential items should be maintained from now on in case of such emergencies. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Agriculture in a statement noted that while records from December and January showed a total of 686,513 hectares of agricultural land, the current floods had destroyed a total of 88,300 hectares of agricultural lands.

The lands consist of paddy, fruits and vegetable cultivations. “About 75% of the crops would have been harvested during this period,” the statement noted.

The districts which have been hit the hardest by the floods with regard to agricultural land are Batticaloa, Trincomalee, Ampara, Polonnaruwa, Anuradhapura and Vavuniya. Inundated roads and continuing heavy rains have hindered the United Nations’ agencies from assessing the flood damages in Sri Lanka, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.

The President has also instructed ministers and officials to prepare a strategic plan to face an impending food crisis, which is expected this April given the damages caused to agricultural lands.

Sri Lanka is facing the danger of losing between 15%-20% of its food harvest due to incessant rains. It was also highlighted that Sri Lanka may not receive assistance from other countries when it comes to food supplies, as global climate changes had adversely affected all countries and their agricultural outputs.

Cabinet discusses floods

The Cabinet of Ministers discussed in detail the recent floods which have affected many parts of the island, said Cabinet Spokesman and Minister of Mass Media and Information Keheliya Rambukwella.

Minister of Disaster Management Mahinda Amaraweera briefed the Cabinet on the immediate measures taken to provide relief to the victims.

“On the instruction of the President, all necessary steps have already been taken to continuously meet the immediate needs of the affected people,” he said.

The President had noted that the necessary funds would be released from the General Treasury to reconstruct and renovate infrastructure facilities such as irrigation tanks, reservoirs, roadways and other such facilities.