Walapane again vulnerable to landslides

One Year On...

Due to the land slides caused on the 12th of
January 2007, almost 3000 families have been
displaced and have been living in temporary
shelters facing severe hardships.
Their request was neither well built houses nor
big scale funding. It was only a land on which to
cultivate and to live without dependence. They
managed this request based on their own capacity
and initiative of building their own houses.
The government continuously stated that they
would provide suitable lands for the victims
to rebuild their houses and issued many statements
that new land had been allocated. Yet
the communities still waited, uninformed,
disempowered and disillusioned. When there
seemed to be no alternatives, families took it
upon themeselves to find a solution. 8 families
from the Walapane temporary shelters entered
the Keerti-Bandarapura environmental conservation
area on February 24, 2008 and were
subsequently arrested by the police. They were
taken to the Nuwara Eliya magistrate and will
appear in court on the 29th of February 2008.

According to details from the Walapane DS office,
313 families are still living in 12 temporary
shelters and many others are living in their relatives’
homes and other places.
Although the government has informed them
not to resettle in their original lands as they
are vulnerable to landslides, they haven’t taken
any action to provide lands from more suitable
areas.
The dry rations that were provided by the government
has stopped and steps have been taken
to regain this much needed relief.
Most of the affected people who were agriculturalists
have had to take labouring work in
urban areas, leaving their wives and children in
the camps.

Problems

Living in temporary shelters has caused physical
and mental problems, especially for the women
and children.
Lack of sanitation
The tents which were given very recently are
not suitable for the present climatic conditions.

At present 16 hectares were found by the DS
office and demarcating process has been slowly
going on.

Recommendations

The resettlement process should be accelerated.
Land selection should be done under the guidance
and supervision of the NBRO.
New livelihoods and existing livelihoods should
be linked with the resettlement process.
Community participation shoud be enhanced.