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Plantation workers face uphill task in Ditwah relief process
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By S. Rubathesan
Vadivel Niranjan, 36, from Deltota, Bopitiya off Kandy, was told to leave his line room located in a tea plantation, due to potential landslides after severe warnings were issued in November.
They were moved to a temporary shelter set up at a nearby church and community centre when Cyclone Ditwah hit Sri Lanka. Last week, he and sixteen other families also from the same line rooms, were told by authorities to return to their line rooms, which had been partially damaged by the effects of Ditwah.
Damage caused to S. Dayalan 's house located in the line rooms of a tea plantation in Matale
“We do not know what to do since earlier we were told by government officials that those line rooms were not safe. But now we have been asked to go back to the same line rooms. I am planning to find a house on rent or I will move to my relative’s place,” Niranjan told the Sunday Times.
Niranjan was born and bred in the line rooms and has raised his three young children in the tiny, packed line rooms. “We informed the Grama Niladhari and other officials to allocate a safe area so that we can at least start setting up a temporary home.”
Niranjan is among 19,299 persons from 6,061 families who are residing in 204 temporary shelters. Across the island 177,423 people from 52,194 families are currently staying with either relatives, friends or in rented homes.
Sivanu Dayalan of Gammaduwa, Matale, is still staying in a church, and the future looks bleak for his young family of five, since their home, a line room, was completely damaged by raging floods.
“ I am not sure how long we are going to stay here, but we are concerned that authorities have yet to indicate a potential safe area for us to relocate,” Dayalan told the Sunday Times.
At least seven people were killed in his area line rooms as flood waters reached up to the ceiling of the line rooms.
With schools being reopened for the new academic year from this week, flood-affected families who were sheltered in schools were told to return to their residences.
Those whose houses were fully or partially damaged are struggling to make alternative arrangements.
Jeevaratnam Suresh, a civil society activist from Malaiyaha Civil Collective for Reconstruction, told the Sunday Times that flood-affected plantation families are in limbo when it comes to resettling in a safe place, which has to be identified with the involvement of respective plantation companies.
“Unlike in a rural village setup, the people in line rooms in plantations feel isolated, and the affected families are not supported by extended family members or friends in the neighbouhood which plays a crucial role during emergency times like this one,” he said. 
Plantation families also face another challenge of going back to their routine work in the absence of a stable home and regular income source after the disaster.
The flood affected Malaiyaha communities, also face communication problems when accessing state relief services. The application forms for temporary housing needs were only in Sinhala and the Tamil-speaking plantation families had to get further assistance to fill out the forms.
The Malaiyaha Civil Collective for Reconstruction identified key issues including a lack of priority to resolve longstanding issues of the community, particularly land rights, a lack of policy guidance from the top levels of the government and a general lack of experience among government administrators in providing relief.
The collective also stressed the need for official communication on relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction-related documents to be in Tamil and the importance of involving the community in the
consultation process.
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