175,000 displaced by renewed flooding in Sri Lanka by Steph Ball
Torrential rains over the weekend and Christmas Eve sparked flash floods across Eastern and Central Sri Lanka, forcing thousands to flee from their homes.
The worst hit areas were the eastern district of Batticaloa, along with the central district of Polonnaruwa. In Batticaloa, days of heavy rain caused a reservoir to burst its banks, flooding many surrounding homes although fortunately, no loss of life has been reported.
Sri Lanka is currently in the midst of the monsoon over north eastern areas which normally runs from December to February. This is the second bout of flooding to hit eastern districts in little more than a week. Last week's flooding was caused by a depression over the Bay of Bengal which intensified the normal monsoon rains. While the monsoon does provide Sri Lanka with positive benefits such as irrigation and power generation, it does often bring with it downsides such as severe flooding and loss of life.
The latest flooding comes at a sensitive time for the area which was badly affected by the Boxing Day tsunami in 2004 and resulted in 35,000 people either dead or missing across Sri Lanka.
Whilst the flooding is now showing signs of subsiding, there are still some 40,000 people in temporary shelter where they are receiving food and water supplies from state agencies.
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