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No houses, no museum, only an unused cultural centre
Galle: Lit lamps float from the canal to the sea from December 23 onwards in memory of the tsunami victims. Pic by Gamini Mahadura
A man who survived the 2004 tsunami still regrets his decision to donate a plot of land to the state to build houses for the displaced.
Ariyaratne Manawaduge told the Sunday Times that instead of putting up houses in the land the government first planned to put up a tsunami museum, but instead built a cultural centre which is not being put to use now.
Mr. Manawaduge, said the Government even laid the foundation stone for the museum in 2005.
“I then said I would give some personal items of some victims to be displayed in the museum. I still have them,” he said.
However, in 2011 he said the Cultural Affairs Ministry came up with a project costing millions of rupees for a cultural centre at the site.
The project he claimed was a white elephant with the centre not being run properly and the building not being maintained and even damaged. ” The place could have been a historical record of that horrible tragedy. but all is lost now,” he lamented.
Mr. Manawaduge narrowly escaped the waves on that fateful December 26 by scrambling onto a concrete roof. His wheel-chair bound wife was dragged by the water and was later rescued from a banana plantation.
He had marked the level of the water that had gushed into his house– as 7’.4” (seven foot and four inches).
His village, Telwatte, Peraliya was one of the worst affected areas in the island, as 1270 passengers perished in the Peraliya train tragedy. In addition more than 200 people died from his area and 141 are still reported as missing. Close to 400 houses were destroyed.
The cultural centre
Mr. Manawaduge shows the point to which the water came up in his home on that fateful day