President Maithripala Sirisena and the government have focused on mitigating landslide and flood disaster that occur frequently in Ratnapura District, Disaster Management Minister Anura Priyadharshana Yapa said.
He was addressing a 'Jana Hamuwa' at Pelpitiya in the Eheliyagoda Divisional Secretariat area after laying the foundation stone for 25 new houses under the financial allocations from ‘Senehe Siyapatha’ Housing Scheme.
The Defence Ministry, Media Ministry and Dialog which foamed the Senehe Siyapatha scheme, allocated Rs. 4 million for the task.
Twenty seven persons died due to May 26 landslide that occurred in the Eheliyagoda area. Families including nine families residing in the 'Most Dangerous Zone' are recipients of the new houses.
Minister Yapa said climatologists have forecast the rain would increase in the wet zone with increased dry conditions in the dry zone in the near future. This has been communicated to the Cabinet to mitigate disasters. The President and Prime Minister have directed their attention to divert the redundant wet zone water to the dry zone.The Minister said that at present, a serious drought is prevailing in the Wayamba, North and North Central Provinces. Therefore, the government has supplied 300 bowsers to distribute water. The Disaster Management Centre distributes 6,580,000 litres of water daily.
He added that the government spends Rs. 3.5 billion monthly for building houses to replace houses destroyed by the landslides and the floods. The government grants each victim Rs. 400,000 to purchase a 20-perch plot of land and Rs. 1.2 million to build a house. No other relief scheme of this nature had so far been introduced in Sri Lanka.
The minister pointed out that the weather forecast may change but it is important to be vigilant towards weather changes.
Ministers John Seneviratna, Karunaratna Paranawithana, Deputy Minister Dunesh Gankanda, Provincial Councillor Siripala Kiriella and Ratnapura District Secretary,Malanie Lokupothagama also spoke. Provincial Councillors K. L. Ratnaike, Nimal Wijenaike, Salitha Karunaratna, Eheliyagoda DS Ranjinie Dissanaike, Assistant DS Nadisha Jayasinghe and Dialog Director Amali Nanaykkara also participated.
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