By Patrick Fuller, International Federation in Colombo, Sri Lanka
Four days of torrential monsoon rains are causing misery for tens of thousands of Sri Lankans throughout the country. According to the government's disaster management centre (DMC) 20 people have died and an estimated 93,000 families (362,000 individuals) have been affected across nine districts of the country.
Disaster response teams from the Kalutara, Galle, Gampaha, Colombo and Ratnapura branches of the Sri Lanka Red Cross Society have been active on the ground, helping evacuate people to safety and carrying out joint assessments with the DMC. Red Cross volunteers have also been delivering food and non-food relief supplies and carrying out emergency first aid.
'Our volunteers have been working around the clock,' says Merrick Peiris, executive director of communications and humanitarian values with the Sri Lanka Red Cross Society. 'Some areas can only be reached by boat and our priority has been to reach stranded families with supplies of cooked food and clean water, to help them through the worst period.'
The floods have overwhelmed many urban areas, particularly in Kalutara and Gampaha districts where poor drainage coupled with overflowing rivers have forced thousands of people to leave their homes and seek sanctuary in 124 temporary shelters-most of which are civic buildings such as schools, temples or community centres.
Once the floodwaters have subsided and people begin returning to their homes, volunteers will be deployed to assist with the cleaning of houses and household wells.
According to the Sri Lanka Government Department of Meteorology, the rains are due to a depression in the Bay of Bengal linked to the onset of the south west monsoon. It is expected that heavy rains will persist throughout June. Branch disaster response teams from the Sri Lanka Red Cross Society are monitoring the situation closely while preparing contingency plans should the flooding worsen.