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Colombo’s forgotten tsunami victims
By Hiranthi Fernando
It was a sea of rubble along the coast at Modera in Moratuwa. Chunks of concrete, broken tiles, bricks, roofing sheets, doors and windows lay in heaps as far as the eye could see. Among the sorry remnants of their homes, a few families live a forlorn existence in makeshift shelters. It looks as though the tsunami had struck just yesterday.

“All we want is a home to live in,” said M.D. Swarna, a mother of three, the youngest just one year old. Swarna’s husband, Nishantha Ajith, is a fisherman, but is unable to earn a living as he has no boat.

Swarna and her family had taken refuge in a school in Ratmalana for three weeks after the tsunami. “We came back here because the children have to go to school,” she said. “We lost everything, including Rs. 200,000 worth of jewellery which was in my almirah,” lamented Swarna.

She said the family had not received the government’s weekly Rs. 200 stipend for the past ten weeks. “When we go to the Samurdhi Bank, they tell us they have not received the money from the Divisional Secretary’s office. We are now living on foodstuffs brought for us by our relatives.”

She said various organizations had told them that if they had the land, they could build houses. “But we have no land. We are within the 100-metre buffer zone. We are willing to go away from the sea as we are frightened to stay here now.”

Chandrika Peiris is expecting her third child next month, living among the ruins of her house, in a temporary shack covered with a tarpaulin. “It is very difficult to live like this,” said Chandrika adding that water seeped in through the planks, when it rained. Chandrika’s husband sells wooden furniture turned out by carpenters in Moratuwa.

Her complaint, like Swarna’s, is about the rations. “Now they only give us flour,” she said. “They say they have no rice in the co-ops. What we want most is a place to live,” she added wistfully.

Other wives also complained about the weekly rations which they said they did not get regularly. The Rs. 200 allowance has not been given for four weeks.
“I went three times and even the flour was finished,” said Deepika. “We hear that the people in Panadura have been issued new rations cards, while we still have coupons left with no foodstuffs to get.”

At Jayasinghe Mills, 39 families are accommodated in a large warehouse, which has been divided into tiny cubicles with cloths draped across. “They are trying to take us to temporary homes in Angulana to a place near the sea, with no water,” said Shelton Silva. “We don’t want to go there. We prefer to stay here until they give us a permanent place to live.”

This is the common plea of most of the people of Modera affected by the tsunami. The majority of them are from the 100 metre buffer zone and have nowhere to go. While some of their neighbours beyond the 100 metre line are being aided by NGOs to rebuild their houses, these people within the buffer zone have no such hopes. Many of them are still living in refugee camps in schools and temples in the area.

“People are saying Moratuwa is not affected and the Rs. 5,000 has been stopped for us, while the people in Panadura are getting it,” they lamented. “But you can see how we are affected, how we have to live.”

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