Sri Lanka Floods Kill 7, Thousands Still Stranded
Date: 17-Dec-04
Country: SRI LANKA
Five people were buried alive when rains triggered landslides in the central tea-growing hills, while vast tracts of residential and farming land remained underwater in further north.
The northern province of Polonnaruwa, which borders territory controlled by Tamil Tiger rebels and boasts some of Sri Lanka's finest ancient ruins, was worst affected.
Local authorities in Polonnaruwa gave the green light to bleed several large, centuries-old irrigation reservoirs on Wednesday fearing that rising water levels could breach embankments and flood nearby villages.
"Floods are subsiding but there is too much water in these tanks and if they start overflowing we will have problems," said National Disaster Management Centre Director N.D. Hettiarachchi.
"We are not yet able to estimate the damage caused to crops and property but we fear it to be in the region of millions of rupees," Hettiarachchi added, estimating th number of people displaced by the floods had fallen to around 134,000.
Military officials said the army were rescuing some people from homes using rubber dinghies, while television footage showed roads submerged under muddy water.
The Meteorology Department has forecast further rains in Polonnaruwa over the next few days, but says the worst appears to be over.
Floods are common across Sri Lanka during the north-east monsoon from December to January, and strand tens of thousands of people each year. In May 2003, flash floods in the south of the Indian Ocean island killed 250 people and left 500,000 homeless.
Sri Lanka has been hit by cyclical floods and droughts in recent years. A drought earlier this year left over 200,000 people without drinking water, ravaged crops and affected nearly 10 percent of the 19 million population.
