ISSN: 1391 - 0531
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Vol. 41 - No 39
Financial Times  

World Bank helps rebuild the lives of Puttalam’s IDP

The World Bank this week approved a US$32 million credit to rebuild the lives of Internally Displaced People (IDPs) in the Puttalam district.

The Puttalam Housing Project will meet the housing needs, provide safe drinking water, sanitation, improved drainage facilities, and regularize land titles for the IDPs who have suffered much hardship during the twenty-five year civil conflict in Sri Lanka.

These people have lived and owned land in Puttalam since 1990, but without any legal land ownership documentation. At present there are over 60,000 people living in 141 refugee camps with 41 percent being children who have known no other home than these camps, the bank said in a statement.

“It is critical that needs of these very vulnerable people are met and assistance provided to bring normalcy to their lives after 16 years of displacement,” said Naoko Ishii, World Bank Country Director for Sri Lanka. “A special feature of this project is that it is designed to support not only the social and economic integration of these IDPs but also some of the needs of the adjoining vulnerable non-IDP communities through shared development activities such as drinking water schemes, sanitation, and resolution of land disputes.”

The Puttalam Housing Project will finance the reconstruction of 7,885 houses through the transfer of cash grants to selected eligible beneficiaries. It will also provide safe drinking water to 136 refugee camps and over 3000 non-IDPs families.

Construction of nearly 10,000 latrines will be undertaken while providing protection to the ground water aquifer ensuring improvement in overall sanitation. Steps will be taken to mitigate the threat of flooding through improved drainage.

Eligible households would be entitled to one of two cash grants of Rs.250,000 (US$2,300) to help construct a permanent house or a grant of Rs.100,000 (US$900) to complete a partly-built house.

“The focus will be on targeted interventions to ensure social cohesion while rebuilding the lives of these IDPs who had not been covered by earlier projects,” said Naresha Duraiswamy, World Bank Senior Operations Officer and project leader. “The housing and regularized land titles will bring stability to their lives, and do much towards integrating the IDPs with the host non IDP population in Puttalam.”

 
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Copyright 2007 Wijeya Newspapers Ltd.Colombo. Sri Lanka.