Fuente : Government of Sri Lanka
http://www.priu.gov.lk/

EARTHQUAKE: President leads relief operations

/noticias.info/ President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga in an emotional Address to the Nation said that as soon as her plane landed at the Bandaranaike International Airport, Katunayake on Monday morning having cut short a private visit to London flew in a helicopter to the tidal wave ravaged areas in the country and surveyed the disaster.

She immediately ordered relief to the North and East including stocks of food and tents for those who had lost their homes. She has taken a number of measures under the Relief Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Authority.

The President has already sent relief to both Government and LTTE areas. She has held discussions with the Government Agents of the Government held areas and the LTTE.

The LTTE has urgently requested medicine and teams of doctors to treat the sick. After discussions more items will be sent tomorrow.

The President also plans to establish a Disaster Management Centre with US and French expertise. This will include an earth quake early warning system. Efforts to this effect were begun with the setting up of the Human Disaster Management Center (HDMC) in 1988 which was hoped would evolve in to disaster preparedness. This however became non-functional in 2001.

President Kumaratunga plans to propose a South Asian Disaster Management Center at the upcoming SAARC summit, in Dhaka, In January. Meanwhile, the Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd. has contributed generously to the North East rehabilitation programme. ITN Chairman Newton Gunaratne has already sent 11 lorry loads of food items and will continue to do so. The President has announced several important decisions regarding urgent measures to provide relief to the victims of the tidal wave disaster.

They include provision of adequate medical services to the affected people, which is the number one priority. She has ordered relevant sections to deploy retired doctors for this endeavour.

Ensuring the systematic provision of relief and conducting relief operations in a systematic manner are two factors which gained her attention.

The President returned to the country on Monday soon after hearing the calamity and took the decisions at the meeting held with the Prime Minister, Cabinet of Ministers and officials.

The President's attention has been drawn to the need to build new houses away from the coast in place of the small houses damaged along the coastline.

She has directed the heads of institutions including the UDA to submit plans to redevelop the devastated areas to her, within two weeks.

A high level committee chaired by the President and comprising the Prime Minister and Subject Ministers were also appointed for this project.

Rehabilitation of damaged roads will begin within the next few days.

The President also directed that a special programme to develop infrastructure facilities at hospitals in affected areas be also launched. The President also held discussions with leaders of all political parties regarding the common action that should be taken in this moment of national disaster.

Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays were set apart for such future discussions. Their aim was to provide maximum relief for the people systematically. Opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe and Karu Jayasuriya, MP also attended the review meeting held at President's House on Monday.

No representative from the TNA attended the meeting despite the Government's offer to place even a helicopter at their disposal including R. Sampanthan.

However representatives of the SLMC are expected to attend future meetings.

Meanwhile, the President's Office and the Government request that all monies destined for the victims of Sunday's disaster be sent directly to the special bank account opened by the President's Office given below:

Central Bank of Sri Lanka

Account Number: 46060

The government requests all state institutions and government authorities not to open separate bank accounts to collect funds. Individuals and institutions could send all monies collected to the above account.

Relief supplies and other material collected may be delivered directly to the affected areas in consultation with the Disaster Management Unit (DMU) at the President's office. The Unit can be contacted on 011-2-435082, 011-4-733531, 011-2-437362 and 011-4-733427.

The DMU could also arrange for relief supplies to be collected in Colombo, when contacted.

All donations of funds or relief supplies will be distributed to all the affected areas the South, East and North of the island, in a fair and equitable manner depending on the needs of the area.

Bodies of 3295 victims of the Amapara district were buried in a mass grave at the cemetery belonging to the mosque at Malayadi, Sammanthurai. Another 482 bodies were buried in a mass grave at Manachchanai, Nayapattapunnai, Kalmunai.

The Special Task Force camp at Arugam Bay have been completely damaged in the tidal wave, but there had been no loss of lives. However, the staff of the Sanidhamaradhu hospital and all indoor and outdoor patients were caught up in the tidal wave. The hospital building has been razed to the ground. Ampara District Secretary Herath Abeyweera says that 6322 bodies have been found in the Ampara district alone so far.

Bodies of foreigners were also among them.

Nearly 122,000 displaced persons are housed in refugee camps in Ampara. More than 5000 houses had been obliterated. Around 8000 displaced families are living under trees in Akkaraipattu's Sagama area in hunger without any relief, according to reports from Correspondents in the area.

A disaster information centre has been set up at Army Headquarters. It can contacted on telephone number 2392435. Information regarding security forces' victims should be notified to this number. Meanwhile the Government has declared December 31 as National Day of mourning. All Sri Lankans are requested to observe this day and act accordingly.

A disaster management special operations unit has been set up at the Anuradhapura esplanade to accept relief items contributed by people in the North Central Province. Chief Minister Berty Premalal Dissanayake has requested people to hand over their contributions to this centre to ensure their systematic distribution.

An opportunity has been provided for all public servants in the North Central Province to contribute this month's salary increase of Rs.2500 to the disaster relief fund.

The Industrial Development Board Head Office at Katubedda and Laksala Showrooms at Thummulla has been declared as centres for collecting contributions made by the public, by the Ministry of Small and Rural Industries.

People can hand over dry rations and other items to these centres, said Minister K.D.Lal Kantha.Further information could be obtained from Telephone numbers 2605887 and 2580579.

A special meeting of all Grama Niladharis and Samurdhi Officers of the Divisional Secretaries' Divisions of Dickwella, Gandara, Weligama and Matara of the Matara District will be held at the Matara District Secretariat's coordinating office today at 08.00 a.m.

District Secretary Gamini Jayasekera has informed the relevant Grama Niladharis to attend this meeting.

Particulars of persons who have come to Matara District either on tour or on any other mission and now displaced can be obtained from the Matara District Secretariat on telephone Nos.0412232601 or 0412222235. Families displaced in the District exceeds 35,000. More than 15,000 dwellings have been completely destroyed.

Records of particulars and photographs of persons who lost their life as victims of Tsunami fatal tidal wave will be preserved at the respective District Secretariats and Police Stations.

Next of kin of the deceased victims can obtain certificates of death on the basis of such particulars. Two hundred unidentified dead bodies found in Hambantota District are due to be buried today.

According to latest reports the tidal waves claimed more than 23256 lives in nine countries in the Asian region including Sri Lanka, India, Thailand and Indonesia. The toll of deaths in Sri Lanka alone exceeded 13000.

Out of them 8000 deaths are attributed to North East where the displaced persons figure stands at half a million. According to our correspondents, this figure tends to rise. The Social Services Department states that the amount of people turned destitute exceed one million.

The Ministry of Urban Development and Water Supply initiated action to restore the services in the devastated areas of Western, Southern, Northern and Eastern Provinces yesterday itself. Services that suffered minor damages have already been restored while those of a major nature are yet in progress with the assistance of additional trained staff from the Main workshop and District Workshops of Ratnapura and Kandy Districts.

Arrangements have been made to dispatch 100 water tanks for each of the districts where restoration of drinking water supply cannot be accomplished in hurry. The amount of water tanks will be increased depending on circumstances. Priority will be given to supply clean water to hospitals and refugee camps.

A stock of chlorine has already been dispatched to District Secretariats to chlorinate polluted water in wells in order to prevent outbreak of epidemics due to use of contaminated water.

Urban Development and Water Supply Minister Dinesh Gunawardena has given instructions to deploy a Deputy General Manager of the Board to each of the Districts to accelerate repair work. He also called upon the staff of the Water Board to act in coordination with the District Secretaries and Divisional Secretaries and give them the highest cooperation in implementing these strategies. notas_de_prensa_archivo