Indian Forces help is essential to help in relief work [File Image]___________________________________________
by Victor Karunairajan from Toronto
(December 08, Toronto, Sri Lanka Guardian) Districts of Northern and Eastern Provinces and regions in Polonnaruwa, Anuradhapura and Puttalam, according to meteorological authorities will continue to experience increased torrential rainfall with stormy winds and more ravaging floods. The grim prediction is portentous, menacing and extremely worrying. There are thousands out there in the open crying for help and this is being hampered severely primarily due to the civil war situation.
Horrendous damage has already been done and how much more can our people take if the weather is to continue in such a calamitous and catastrophic manner?
Flood havoc apart from the tsunami deluge of 2004 in the northern and eastern provinces and the districts of Polonaruwa, Anuradhapura and Puttalam seem unprecedented in decades. There seem no signs yet of it ceasing from the damage it is causing to these areas. According to officials in Mullaithivu in the Wanni enclave of the LTTE, considerable concerns are being expressed about the fate of thousands of internally displaced people, many of whom had sought refuge in the jungle and under trees.
Ms Imelda Sukumar, the Government Agent for the District of Mullaithivu has instructed her officials to take immediate action to meet the needs of her district where hundreds of people have been affected by being displaced following the civil war and now caught in the jaws of nature’s unrelenting fury.
Cyclonic weather periodically hits the Bay of Bengal region with Bangladesh taking the worst of it with greater regularity than the regions along the Indian eastern coast and the northern and eastern provinces of Sri Lanka. Although there is no escape from the squalls of nature and the terrible tempests she lets loose, the Chittagong basin suffers the inevitable worst.
This could have been abated to some degree by having developed modern irrigation systems, dams and protective measures in this area of hundreds of streams from main rivers and flow of waters from the mountain sources of the Himalayas but this has not happened. This is mostly due to the terrible corruption that was seeded into the country ever since partition and again following the revolution that took place after the eastern wing of Pakistan was wrenched away with the help of India and Bangladesh was established.
Likewise in Sri Lanka the north and east were neglected and kulams, the man-made tanks that collected rainwater and not only helped the farmers but also fed the underground coral caverns that provide a perpetual fresh water supply, were neglected. Most of these kulams have been filled up much to the damage of underground water systems.
Time to time when nature reminds us in such disastrous ways we are reminded of what little we are doing to lessen the damage and the same story of devastation is repeated time and again. Just a few days ago a man-made outrage of terrorism affected the City of Mumbai in the region and now a nature’s fury causes another kind of disaster. Worse, we are in the midst of an incessant civil war affecting the very region of this stormy devastation and destruction. .
How will the government move in this area to organize flood relief measures with the LTTE involved with its military might and how will the LTTE react to the government taking measures which may require the help of the armed forces, the emergency and the need to provide relief to the civilian people being of such immensity? In India, in such a situation and for that matter in any country, the armed forces would have already moved in to aid the affected population. They have the ready means to provide help.
What is evidently needed as a matter of urgency is to move hundreds of displaced families to safer regions which could very well be in traditional Sinhala areas. There is no escape from this fundamental consideration. There can be no delay in this and every hour tarried will mean a greater havoc and more people perishing.
Can Sri Lanka seek the services of the Indian Forces and if they do, how will the LTTE react to their presence in Wanni and the neighbouring districts? Indian Forces are experts in flood relief work, considered best in the world to meet such disasters.
May be this is the time, the non-governmental organizations who are really committed to humanitarian ideologies to take a stand and demand from the Government of Sri Lanka to cease all war activities and equally tell the LTTE to cooperate and support any means possible to make relief the primary and the only pursuit for the present.
Last week the Indian Air Force (IAF) swung into action in Tamilnadu as soon as the weather momentarily cleared and carried out extensive flood relief operations stated a report from Kerala following extensive flooding in Papanasam, Mulanguri, Melatur, Pandalenur and areas in and around Thanjavur. The IAF based in Thanjavur used three AN-32 aircraft and also three Mi-6 helicopters to carry relief materials to the affected areas. They flew no less than twelve sorties to drop more than 15,000 kilograms of relief materials comprising bread, biscuits, chocolates and drinking water. The Sri Lankan situation demands a lot more and the Indian Air Force has the capability to meet such a need. - Sri Lanka Guardian
by Victor Karunairajan from Toronto
(December 08, Toronto, Sri Lanka Guardian) Districts of Northern and Eastern Provinces and regions in Polonnaruwa, Anuradhapura and Puttalam, according to meteorological authorities will continue to experience increased torrential rainfall with stormy winds and more ravaging floods. The grim prediction is portentous, menacing and extremely worrying. There are thousands out there in the open crying for help and this is being hampered severely primarily due to the civil war situation.
Horrendous damage has already been done and how much more can our people take if the weather is to continue in such a calamitous and catastrophic manner?
Flood havoc apart from the tsunami deluge of 2004 in the northern and eastern provinces and the districts of Polonaruwa, Anuradhapura and Puttalam seem unprecedented in decades. There seem no signs yet of it ceasing from the damage it is causing to these areas. According to officials in Mullaithivu in the Wanni enclave of the LTTE, considerable concerns are being expressed about the fate of thousands of internally displaced people, many of whom had sought refuge in the jungle and under trees.
Ms Imelda Sukumar, the Government Agent for the District of Mullaithivu has instructed her officials to take immediate action to meet the needs of her district where hundreds of people have been affected by being displaced following the civil war and now caught in the jaws of nature’s unrelenting fury.
Cyclonic weather periodically hits the Bay of Bengal region with Bangladesh taking the worst of it with greater regularity than the regions along the Indian eastern coast and the northern and eastern provinces of Sri Lanka. Although there is no escape from the squalls of nature and the terrible tempests she lets loose, the Chittagong basin suffers the inevitable worst.
This could have been abated to some degree by having developed modern irrigation systems, dams and protective measures in this area of hundreds of streams from main rivers and flow of waters from the mountain sources of the Himalayas but this has not happened. This is mostly due to the terrible corruption that was seeded into the country ever since partition and again following the revolution that took place after the eastern wing of Pakistan was wrenched away with the help of India and Bangladesh was established.
Likewise in Sri Lanka the north and east were neglected and kulams, the man-made tanks that collected rainwater and not only helped the farmers but also fed the underground coral caverns that provide a perpetual fresh water supply, were neglected. Most of these kulams have been filled up much to the damage of underground water systems.Time to time when nature reminds us in such disastrous ways we are reminded of what little we are doing to lessen the damage and the same story of devastation is repeated time and again. Just a few days ago a man-made outrage of terrorism affected the City of Mumbai in the region and now a nature’s fury causes another kind of disaster. Worse, we are in the midst of an incessant civil war affecting the very region of this stormy devastation and destruction. .
How will the government move in this area to organize flood relief measures with the LTTE involved with its military might and how will the LTTE react to the government taking measures which may require the help of the armed forces, the emergency and the need to provide relief to the civilian people being of such immensity? In India, in such a situation and for that matter in any country, the armed forces would have already moved in to aid the affected population. They have the ready means to provide help.
What is evidently needed as a matter of urgency is to move hundreds of displaced families to safer regions which could very well be in traditional Sinhala areas. There is no escape from this fundamental consideration. There can be no delay in this and every hour tarried will mean a greater havoc and more people perishing.
Can Sri Lanka seek the services of the Indian Forces and if they do, how will the LTTE react to their presence in Wanni and the neighbouring districts? Indian Forces are experts in flood relief work, considered best in the world to meet such disasters.
May be this is the time, the non-governmental organizations who are really committed to humanitarian ideologies to take a stand and demand from the Government of Sri Lanka to cease all war activities and equally tell the LTTE to cooperate and support any means possible to make relief the primary and the only pursuit for the present.
Last week the Indian Air Force (IAF) swung into action in Tamilnadu as soon as the weather momentarily cleared and carried out extensive flood relief operations stated a report from Kerala following extensive flooding in Papanasam, Mulanguri, Melatur, Pandalenur and areas in and around Thanjavur. The IAF based in Thanjavur used three AN-32 aircraft and also three Mi-6 helicopters to carry relief materials to the affected areas. They flew no less than twelve sorties to drop more than 15,000 kilograms of relief materials comprising bread, biscuits, chocolates and drinking water. The Sri Lankan situation demands a lot more and the Indian Air Force has the capability to meet such a need. - Sri Lanka Guardian
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