Sri Lanka: Japan helps welfare centres

The Japanese government will provide assistance for the provision of drinking water supply equipment and a septate treatment plant to welfare centres for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the North.

Japanese Ambassador Kunio Takahashi handed over the relevant Note Verbal to Water Supply and Drainage Minister A.L.M. Athaullah.

The Project which has materialized consequent to a request made by the National Water Supply and Drainage Board (NWS&DB) to the Japanese Embassy on the instruction of Minister A.L.M. Athaullah, will meet immediate requirements of safe drinking water and improvement of sanitation in welfare centres. Read more...

Tigers still taking cover among IDP’s says IGP

The police said that there was irrefutable evidence that many LTTE cadres, including hardcore operatives, continued to take refuge among civilians accommodated at welfare centres in the Vavuniya region.

The police top brass Friday (August 28) said that interrogation of suspects taken from welfare camps had led to a spate of recent detections in areas formerly under LTTE control.

At a Police Headquarters press briefing on Friday (August 28), IGP Jayantha Wickremaratne said that since the collapse of the LTTE last May, the police had made substantial recoveries on information provided by LTTE suspects.

One of the biggest detection had been made on August 21 when an LTTE suspect led the police to a buried arsenal comprising 114,000 rounds of pistol (.45) ammunition, 27,990 rounds of 5.56 ammunition and 5,368 rounds of 23 mm ammunition at Vallipuram, he said. Read more ...

Rain affected IDPs reduced to mere 500

At the commencement of the North-East monsoonal rains last week, almost 21,000 IDPs in the Vavuniya Welfare Centres were badly affected but due to emergency relief operations carried by the authorities those affected have been reduced to a mere 500 at present, Vavuniya District Secretary Ms P. M. S. Charles said.

Due to the sudden downpour last week some welfare centres got flooded but most of the affected have been shifted to new camps put up at higher elevations and they have been supplied with cooked meals, the District Secretary further said.

IDPs at welfare centres at zone 4 were worst affected due to the flooding. Toilet pits were washed away due to the floods but a proper drainage system has been put in place now and the problem solved, she said. Read more ...

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French mobile hospital commences operations in Sri Lanka

The mobile hospital donated by the French government has commenced its operations at Chettikulam in Vavuniya yesterday.

The Ministry of Resettlement and Disaster Relief Services said that the new mobile hospital is equipped with 100 beds and all other medical equipments.

Nearly 30 French medical personnel including few specialist doctors are working at this mobile hospital to treat the sick and wounded civilians living in welfare centers in Vavuniya. Read more ...