The threat of disease loomed yesterday over the 1 million-plus victims of floods in Sri Lanka that have left more than 30 people dead and devastated farmland in the island’s rice bowl.
Sri Lankan Disaster Management Minister Mahinda Amaraweera said that medical units had been rushed to the central and eastern regions, where hundreds of thousands have been forced to take shelter in cramped, state-run relief camps.
“We are very conscious of the fact that there can be water-borne diseases and we brought medical staff from other areas to help out,” Amaraweera said. “There are no reports of diarrhea, but we are taking precautions.”
More than 1 million people were initially displaced in the flooding triggered by unusually heavy monsoon rains in the past week.
The state Disaster Management Centre said 32 people had been officially confirmed dead, with another 12 missing.
UN agencies in Colombo said that providing relief for those in the worst affected areas was a serious challenge, and that they would shortly issue an international appeal for funding.
“A lot of work needs to be done after the water goes down, but first we have to assist people in welfare centers, to make sure they get adequate food, medicines and clean drinking water,” UNICEF spokesman Mervyn Fletcher said.
The UN children’s agency was helping to purify millions of liters of drinking water for distribution in the affected regions.
Amaraweera said initial surveys showed that vast tracts of farmland had been destroyed, but added that it would be days before an accurate estimate of the economic impact could be made.
Nearly one-fifth of Sri Lanka’s rice farms were affected by the floods, along with other vegetable crops, triggering immediate price rises in retail markets across the country.
Government officials said at least 30,000 homes had been damaged or completely destroyed by the floods and mudslides.
In the north-central region of Habarana, the carcass of a drowned baby elephant was found on Thursday atop a 5m tree that had been submerged by the floodwaters.
Weather conditions improved across the island yesterday, but the weather bureau in Colombo said there was a possibility of further rain.
The improved weather opened up the main roads leading to the key eastern towns, where a consignment of food, bottled water and medicines donated by India was being distributed yesterday.
Some 3,000 soldiers have been deployed to help with the relief efforts, along with trucks and air force helicopters.
A large number of those forced out of their homes had only recently been resettled after decades of ethnic conflict between Tamil Tiger rebels and government forces.
Many had also seen their livelihoods wrecked before by the December 2004 Asian tsunami.
Sri Lanka depends on monsoon rains for irrigation and power generation, but the seasonal downpours frequently cause death and property damage in low--lying areas as well as mountainous regions.
The island’s two main monsoon seasons run from May to September and December to February.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
China would train thousands of foreign law enforcement officers to see the world order “develop in a more fair, reasonable and efficient direction,” its minister for public security has said. “We will [also] send police consultants to countries in need to conduct training to help them quickly and effectively improve their law enforcement capabilities,” Chinese Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong (王小洪) told an annual global security forum. Wang made the announcement in the eastern city of Lianyungang on Monday in front of law enforcement representatives from 122 countries, regions and international organizations such as Interpol. The forum is part of ongoing