Sri Lanka: IOM races to provide shelter, sanitation, as displaced flood into Vavuniya

With a flood of over 110,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) in the past ten days into Vavuniya, the government-controlled district adjoining the LTTE conflict zone, IOM is racing to provide shelter and sanitation for nearly 40,000 new arrivals.

The IOM Vavuniya team, which now numbers over 130, including 30 staff and 100 locally recruited labourers, has already built 2,500 emergency shelters but is now turning to tents as the fastest way to shelter the IDPs from the extreme heat. IOM Sri Lanka has 400 tents in stock and is flying in a further 4,000 to Colombo from Dubai and China on 29 April.

"Many of the new arrivals have been displaced repeatedly by the conflict. Some are injured, they have had very little medical care, almost no food and water and have had to walk for days. They need help now and we have to move fast," says IOM Sri Lanka Chief of Mission Mohammed Abdiker. Read more ...