Flooding kills 18, threatens food supply

• Weather grounds president’s tour of affected areas
• Fifth of staple rice crop at risk
• At least 196,000 forced to flee homes

By Ranga Sirilal

COLOMBO (Reuters) - Heavy monsoon rains on Wednesday kept Sri Lanka’s president from visiting areas inundated by flooding that has killed 18 people, forced 196,000 from their homes across a third of the nation, and threatened food supply.

Nearly a fifth of Sri Lanka’s rice paddies are either destroyed or under standing water that could wipe out the crop, the Agriculture Ministry said, raising concerns over supply shocks and higher food inflation for Sri Lanka’s staple food.

Greater-than-normal monsoon rains since early January have hit the Indian Ocean island in the Northern, Eastern, Central and North Central provinces, building up to cause mudslides, swamp roads and burst hundreds of dams and reservoirs.

Sri Lanka’s Disaster Management Centre said that at least 18 people had been killed across the country, with a landslide in the hilly Kandy area killing at least seven people.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa deployed the military to rescue people by helicopter and boat, and assist in relief efforts, the Defence Ministry said. He too had planned to distribute aid.

“His plan was to go all over the place, but he couldn’t make it because of the bad weather,” presidential spokesman Bandula Jayasekara said.

Rajapaksa had to abandon his helicopter trip after visiting the ancient Sri Lankan capital of Polonnaruwa, a popular tourist destination, in the North Central Province.

Food supply at risk

Agricultural Ministry data showed a total of 15,000 hectares (37,070 acres) of rice paddy fields have been destroyed and another 90,000 hectares are under water, which will ruin the crop if it does not subside in a few days.

Sri Lanka cultivates 570,000 hectares of paddy twice a year, and another 100,000 hectares has been added in the former war zone in the Northern and Eastern Provinces, since the end of a three-decade civil war in May 2009, according to the government.

“Prevailing weather conditions have affected crops as some have subsided and even the lack of sunlight is also hindering the production,” Plantation Ministry Secretary K.E. Karunatilake told Reuters. The flooding comes just as Sri Lanka’s central bank lowered policy rates even further to spur corporate credit growth, saying it had inflation under control for 2011. Economists have said that such a scenario is at risk. Food accounts for 45.5 percent of the total goods basket used to compile inflation, which hit a 21-month high in November due to higher food prices, government data shows.

Sri Lanka has been able to maintain low inflation since the war’s end, mainly due to the higher supply coming from the Northern and Eastern Provinces where fighting between the government and Tamil Tiger separatists hampered production.

The World Food Programme and government are preparing to help farmers replant the crops as soon as waters subside, the Information Department said. Sri Lanka’s tea crop, one of its biggest foreign exchange earners, was also at some risk, but Sri Lanka Tea Board Director-General H.D. Hemarathne said it was too early to judge the extent.

Flooding and displacements are common in Sri Lanka, where a southern monsoon batters the island between May and September, and a northeastern monsoon runs from December to February.

Flood and Land slide Relief Assistance Fund established

Additional Secretary to the Ministry of Disaster Management Gamini Rajakaruna said yesterday appeals have been made to many voluntary organisations to provide mats, mattresses, medicine, drinking water, food and other essential items and due to the magnitude of the problem additional funds are required to assist the victims.  

He said a special Bank Account No.0007040166 has been opened at the Bank of Ceylon, Torrington Branch for philanthropists to donate funds.  Further details on depositing funds could be obtained by calling the Chief Accountant of the Ministry Kalansuriya on 071 3041226 or on 0112681983.

He also said that the Minister Mahinda Amaraweera who is presently camping in the worst affected Eastern Province to carry out expeditious relief assistance programmes has taken several measures in coordination with the other Ministries and the voluntary organisations to assist and help the victims.  

He said that the Tri-Services and the Police are carrying out a commendable service in rescuing the stranded people and providing food and other essentials.  

He said that in many areas in the East, transport has become a drastic problem due to many roads being inundated and boats are being used to transports relief items and cooked food.