Client
Sri Lanka Ports Authority
Date / Period
November 2006 to January 2007
Scope / Work Done
19 nos of boreholes drilled on and off-shore and covered quay, basin, and channel areas.
Gallery
HAMBANTOTA, Sri Lanka: This battered harbor town on Sri Lanka`s southern tip, with its scrawny men selling even scrawnier fish, seems an unlikely focus for an emerging international competition over energy supply routes that fuel much of the global economy.
An impoverished place still recovering from the devastation of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, Hambantota has a desolate air, a sense of nowhereness, punctuated by the realization that looking south over the expanse of ocean, the next landfall is Antarctica.
But just over the horizon runs one of the world`s great trade arteries, the shipping lanes where thousands of vessels carry oil from the Middle East and raw materials to Asia, returning with television sets, toys and sneakers for European consumers.
These tankers provide 80 percent of China`s oil and 65 percent of India`s — fuel desperately needed for the two countries` rapidly growing economies. Japan, too, is almost totally dependent on energy supplies shipped through the Indian Ocean.
Any disruption — from terrorism, piracy, natural disaster or war — could have devastating effects on these countries and, in an increasingly interdependent world, send ripples across the globe. When an unidentified ship attacked a Japanese oil tanker traveling through the Indian Ocean from South Korea to Saudi Arabia in April, the news sent oil prices to record highs.
For decades the world relied on the powerful U.S. Navy to protect this vital sea lane. But as India and China gain economic heft, they are moving to expand their control of the waterway, sparking a new — and potentially dangerous — rivalry between Asia`s emerging giants.
China has given massive aid to Indian Ocean nations, signing friendship pacts, building ports in Pakistan and Bangladesh as well as Sri Lanka, and reportedly setting up a listening post on one of Myanmar`s islands near the strategic Strait of Malacca.
Now, India is trying to parry China`s moves. It beat out China for a port project in Myanmar. And, flush with cash from its expanding economy, India is beefing up its military, with the expansion seemingly aimed at China. Washington and, to a lesser extent, Tokyo are encouraging India`s role as a counterweight to growing Chinese power.
Among China`s latest moves is the billion dollar port its engineers are building in Sri Lanka, an island country just off India`s southern coast.
The Chinese insist the Hambantota port is a purely commercial move, and by all appearances, it is. But some in India see ominous designs behind the project, while others in countries surrounding India like the idea. A 2004 Pentagon report called Beijing`s effort to expand its presence in the region China`s `string of pearls.`
No one wants war, and relations between the two nations are now at their closest since a brief 1962 border war in which China quickly routed Indian forces. Last year, trade between India and China grew to US$37 billion (€ 24.8 billion) and their two armies conducted their first-ever joint military exercise.
Still, the Indians worry about China`s growing influence.
`Each pearl in the string is a link in a chain of the Chinese maritime presence,` India`s navy chief, Adm. Sureesh Mehta, said in a speech in January, expressing concern that naval forces operating out of ports established by the Chinese could `take control over the world energy jugular.`
`It is a pincer movement,` said Rahul Bedi, a South Asia analyst with London-based Jane`s Defense Weekly. `That, together with the slap India got in 1962, keeps them awake at night.`
B. Raman, a hawkish, retired Indian intelligence official, expressed the fears of some Indians over the Chinese-built ports, saying he believes they`ll be used as naval bases to control the area.
`We cannot take them at face value. We cannot assume their intentions are benign,` said Raman.
But Zhao Gancheng, a South Asia expert at the Chinese government-backed Shanghai Institute for International Studies, says ports like Hambantota are strictly commercial ventures. And Sri Lanka says the new port will be a windfall for its impoverished southern region.
With Sri Lanka`s proximity to the shipping lane already making it a hub for transshipping containers between Europe and Asia, the new port will boost the country`s annual cargo handling capacity from 6 million containers to some 23 million, said Priyath Wickrama, deputy director of the Sri Lankan Ports Authority.
Wickrama said a new facility was needed since the main port in the capital Colombo has no room to expand and Trincomalee port in the Northeast is caught in the middle of Sri Lanka`s civil war. Hambantota also will have factories onsite producing cement and fertilizer for export, he said.
Meanwhile, India is clearly gearing its military expansion toward China rather than its longtime foe, and India has set up listening stations in Mozambique and Madagascar, in part to monitor Chinese movements, Bedi noted. It also has an air base in Kazakhstan and a space monitoring post in Mongolia — both China`s neighbors.
India has announced plans to have a fleet of aircraft carriers and nuclear submarines at sea in the next decade and recently tested nuclear-capable missiles that put China`s major cities well in range. It is also reopening air force bases near the Chinese border.
Encouraging India`s role as a counter to China, the U.S. has stepped up exercises with the Indian navy and last year sold it an American warship for the first time, the 17,000-ton amphibious transport dock USS Trenton. American defense contractors — shut out from the lucrative Indian market during the long Cold War — have been offering India`s military everything from advanced fighter jets to anti-ship missiles.
`It is in our interest to develop this relationship,` U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said during a visit to New Delhi in February. `Just as it is in the Indians` interest.`
Officially, China says it`s not worried about India`s military buildup or its closer ties with the U.S. However, foreign analysts believe China is deeply concerned by the possibility of a U.S.-Indian military alliance.
Ian Storey of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore said China sent strong diplomatic messages expressing opposition to a massive naval exercise India held last year with the U.S., Japan, Singapore and Australia. And Bedi, the Jane`s analyst, added `those exercises rattled the Chinese.`
India`s 2007 defense budget was about US$21.7 billion (€ 14.1 billion), up 7.8 percent from 2006. China said its 2008 military budget would jump 17.6 percent to some US$59 billion (€ 38.3 billion), following a similar increase last year. The U.S. estimates China`s actual defense spending may be much higher.
Like India, China is focusing heavily on its navy, building an increasingly sophisticated submarine fleet that could eventually be one of the world`s largest.
While analysts believe China`s military buildup is mostly focused on preventing U.S. intervention in any conflict with Taiwan, India is still likely to persist in efforts to catch up as China expands its influence in what is essentially India`s backyard. Meanwhile, Sri Lankans — who have looked warily for centuries at vast India to the north — welcome the Chinese investment in their country.
`Our lives are going to change,` said 62-year-old Jayasena Senanayake, who has seen business grow at his roadside food stall since construction began on the nearby port. `What China is doing for us is very good.`
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Associated Press writer Christopher Bodeen contributed to this report from Beijing
After the Tsunami struck Sri Lanka in December 2004, waste management systems virtually collapsed and waste was disposed of indiscriminately. The local authorities were faced with a post-tsunami situation which was beyond their resources. This lead to unplanned coastal zone dumping practices, poor urban environment planning, substandard water management and sanitation practices and a general waste of resources. The project “Rapid implementation of community based short and middle term measures to improve the As of such, the project team arranged interventions in the following thematic areas: The documents starts with an overview of general issues with solid waste management in a southern context, and underlines the need for solid waste management in post-disaster areas. Chapter 3 gives the project objectives, the results as proposed, and gives an overview of the activities of the project team. Chapter 4 is a case study of implementation of Integrated Waste Management in Hambantota, and includes a proposal with relevant components. Chapter 5 focuses on the formation of the ISWM National Policy Platform, and the formulation of National Policy for Solid Waste Management in Sri Lanka. The ISWM National Policy Platform has in the last 2 years come to a first set of strategies to implement the National Policy. These strategies are reflected in Chapter 6. Finally, Chapter 7 provides a set of conclusions and recommendations for follow-up.
functioning of solid waste management in Tsunami affected areas of Ampara and Hambantota districts” was approved by CORDAID on March 1st 2006.
Hambantota Hambantota Urban Council Members:
1. Mohomad Thawfik Sirajadeen
2. Wanniarachchi Kankanamge Priyantha Lalith
Kumara
3. Mohomad Rafais Salasa
4. Mohomad Husain Mohomad Risan
5. Dahathun Arachchige Gamini
6. Mohomad Sharifdeen Faris
7. Kamilin Mohammath Samsudeen
While people await eagerly the many development projects in this once backwater area, there is a lot of heartburn over relocation plans, reports...... Hambantota may have been in Lanka’s backwater for a very long time and a pertinent question that used to be asked by political rivals here from the most powerful clan from this backward district, the Rajapaksa’s of Giruwapattuwa was what they have done for the region all these years? Rajapaksa’s may have been thinking of the greater national good while holding many ministerial posts over the years, instead of merely enriching a pocket borough, but now with them being at the helm of the country, Hambantota is being truly transformed into the 21st century. We toured the region last week to get a first hand look at what is in store and we found that though much local and international attention has gone to the construction of the proposed international harbour and airport here, there are many other complementary and supplementary projects that are either under construction or are about to take off the ground. One project that is working full steam with ADB assistance is the upgrading of the existing natural fishery harbour. Here the China Harbour Engineering Company is building two breakwaters of 173 metres and 253 metres to enable this fishery harbour to be used through out the year. This part of the contract amounting Rs.334 million, includes deepening its approach to a depth of five metres and a width of 70 metres, deepening the inner basin to a depth of 3.5 metres and building a 150 metre quay. On completion in July it will be able to accommodate 70 multi-day boats and other smaller craft. The project originally set to be completed last April has got delayed, according to its Assistant Resident Engineer W.A.N. Silva due to the contractor finding it difficult to obtain adequate amount of large boulders for the breakwater construction on time. Its Project Director from the Fishery Harbours Corporation Nissanka Perera adds that these are no ordinary granite boulders, with each weighing as much as three to five tonnes. He assures that the contract for the second half of the project, the building of the shore facilities, including the fish auction building, a net mending facility, and an administrative complex too will be awarded shortly and that too will be ready by the end of the year. Another project, the work on which has just been started is a US$20 million modern administrative complex for the new Hambantota town. The South Korean construction giant Keangnam has been awarded the contract. It is being funded by a soft loan from the Korean government. The repayment is spread over a long period, according to Secretary to the Ministry of Urban Development Dr. P Ramunajam Almost adjoining this office complex will see the construction of an international conference hall, 70 per cent of its total cost of US$ 8 million is being met by the South Korean government as a gift to Sri Lanka. One hundred acres have been set aside for the office complex and the conference hall. Another 400 acres have been set aside adjacent to the new harbour for a BOI approved oil refinery project. Parallel to these projects, work is also in progress on the construction of infrastructure and other support facilities such as a new Galle Road through the interior circling the new harbour as a big portion of the present Galle Road will disappear with the construction of the port inland between Mirijjawila junction and encompassing the Karagan Saltern lagoon. This lagoon, as its Sinhala name suggests originally a saltern, but has not been used for that purpose for a long time since waste water had been flowing into it from the nearby government base hospital. While practically everyone in Hambantota is now eagerly and proudly awaiting these massive projects, there is much heartburn especially over the compensation packages on offer among several hundred families who will have to be shifted to accommodate the flag ship projects, the international harbour and the airport at Weerawila, . Unlike all the other projects which are coming up on recently cleared virgin shrub jungle, these two massive projects and their support facilities expected to cost initially US$360 million and US$ 125 million, require thousands of acres of land now occupied by people. Because of these frictions and the enormity of the tasks ahead, one cannot really blame President Mahinda Rajapaksa appointing his elder brother Chamal to the portfolio of Shipping and Aviation early this month. The haughty attitude of some officials attached to the Sri Lanka Ports Authority may have contributed to the deepening of friction with the affected people. When we tried to raise the grievances of people who will have to be moved out for the harbour project, from a senior Ports Authority engineer, such as the low compensation amounts offered to them , he at once maintained that 192 families had already agreed to leave the area accepting the package offered and only 78 were holding back for more. And when it was pointed out that there are grave shortcomings in the infrastructure of the new township being prepared to resettle those people at Siribopura, he immediately cut the call. The affected people took us to the new scheme, which was devoid of any trees, where the drains were being built and the inner roads were being macadamized at a cost of Rs. 60 million. It was obvious to anyone that the tar was being poured over a layer of metal not even two inches thick and beneath that thin layer of metal was just plain earth. And the drains and the hume pipes used for culverts couldn’t have been even one foot in diameter. SLPA Chief Engineer Janaka Kurukulasuriya was more accommodating and assured us that he would personally inspect the scheme to see that everything was done according to specifications. He maintained that the diameter of drains and culverts had to be 300 mm and the contractor should ensure that the roads should have two layers of metal totalling 75mm of thickness. In addition to the dispute over compensation package, the affected people also complain about having to move to an area which is barren amidst unbearable arid weather conditions in the district. They also fear wild animals and especially wild elephants, for Siribopura adjoins elephant infested shrub jungle. In fact while we were there around noon, we ourselves observed a wild elephant feeding at a garbage dump nearby. So without an electric fence it would be suicidal to live there. Even the 78 families who have so far not signed up to leave, are willing to vacate, if a compensation package similar to the extremely lucrative ones given to affected people at places like Norochcholai and areas coming under the southern hi-way, is offerd to them. Though these two big projects are definitely needed for the development of the whole country, raising the required finances appears to be the problem facing the authorities. Government Agent, Hambantota, R.M.D. Meegasmulla hit the nail on the head when he admitted that compensation packages offered at Norichcholai and for areas coming under the southern hi - way were high, thanks to donor funding, but the problem here was much of the funding has to be raised locally. It appears that even the launching of the harbour project has been somewhat delayed over the issue of raising the required finances, but Minister Chamal Rajapaksa told The Sunday Times that they would now lay the foundation stone with a soft ceremony on June 07. The new port is earmarked to be completed in three years and three months, while the new international airport is expected to go into basic operation in 2009. He said officials of the Ex-Im Bank of China, which is to provide a loan to finance the venture visited the area last Sunday in this regard. Pending the finalization of the loan they were going ahead with the project with SLPA funds. President Rajapaksa during his state visit to China earlier this year has already signed the general agreement with Beijing to build the port. Chief Engineer Kurukulasuriya assures speeding up of compensation payments to 150 families out of the 192 already agreed to leave, within the next two to three weeks. As for the balance 42 he said there are disputes about ownership and other issues preventing them from disbursing any funds to them. As for those refusing to sign up to vacate, Minister Rajapksa has met the members of the Association of Those Losing Properties to the Proposed Port early this week and have agreed to review their individual cases with a view to paying maximum compensation possible. Unlike people being ousted by the harbour project who have been ever ready to leave provided they are provided the right compensation package, those being asked to leave to facilitate the new airport at Weerawila, the request has come like a bolt of lightning late last year, for earlier under the previous UNP regime the second international airport was earmarked to be built at Kuda Oya in the Moneragala District about 30 miles north of the present location. Here, about 362 families in Colony 10 and few families in Colony 11 face the prospect of having to be uprooted after struggling to build their lives for the past 22 years. They were settled here in 1985 under the Lunugamvehera scheme. The scheme was a failure till few years back due to inadequate supply of water, but with the bringing in of additional water through the newly constructed Weherahgala canal people have begun enjoying bountiful harvests during both seasons. According to the Airport and Aviation Services sources Kuda Oya site was a hasty selection done without giving consideration to access to infrastructure and even the presence of a nearby mountain range in Wellawaya is seen as a potential threat to the safe operation of an airport. But at Weerawila, there is a greater problem over the threat faced by the adjoining Bundala bird sanctuary. An Environmental Impact Assessment prepared for the Weerawila airport project is said to be now under the review of a high-powered committee appoited by the Central Environmental Authority. Director General of the Hambantota District Chamber of Commerce Azmi Thassim too feels the build up of friction. Therefore, he appeals to authorities to take the people into confidence and to march forward as a team to achieve these goals. “These are good ideas and if properly managed they are not impossible to achieve. Instead of ad hoc decisions, people must be taken into confidence and from there work as a team, through continuous engagement of the community.” Tourism being the main income source of the region and the airport also being an urgent need, he suggests that the new airport be sited at least ten kilometres from Yala and at least 50 kilometres from Bundala to ensure that no harm is done to the two nature reserves by aircraft landing and taking off. With certainty, he says the harbour and the airport are the answers to the economic woes faced by them as those two alone would make the area centre of a lucrative triangle. To the east, he points to Arugam Bay, the best surfing destination in the world; to the west the golden beaches of the South and to the North the cool climes of hill destinations. The Director General recalls that the current crisis facing the district is unprecedented. and far worse than the troubles they faced during the first and second JVP insurrections and the tsunami. Similar desperate sentiments are echoed by Hambantota Regional President of the Hoteliers Association, Priyankara Wickramasekera. He says not only the survival of hotels are at stake, but thousands of their direct employees, suppliers, and everyone down the chain are in jeopardy. Even with the Weerawila airport project, again the authorities have obviously run into a financial problem, which is envisaged to be resolved through raising the required funds from national lotteries run by the Lotteries Board. As such all Rs10 lottery tickets will double in price from August. The Lotteries Board will also introduce two new dollar denominated lottery tickets eying foreign travellers.A policeman stands guard at the foundation stone site of the airport. Pic by Saman Kariyawasam
Export Development and International Trade Minister Prof. G. L. Peiris told Parliament yesterday that the Chinese government has decided to accelerate the development work of the Hambantota harbour. Prof. Peiris said it was a myth that the international community had been hostile to Sri Lanka. He asserted that China and Japan showed a keen interest in Sri Lanka at this hour during his meetings with the political and business leaders of these two countries. The Minister pointed out that China is involved in three major projects here such as the Coal Power Project in Norochcholai. “Japan is carrying out the construction of major bridges here. They also have a project to upgrade the facilities available at the Anuradhapura hospital,” he said. Referring to the extension of the GSP + facility to Sri Lanka, he said that it is indeed useful to have it to facilitate the access of 7100 Sri Lankan export items to 27 European countries. However, he emphasized that the government was not ready to barter the country’s sovereignty to get this facility extended. “However, we engage in a discussion with the European Commission through normal diplomatic channels,” he said Commenting on the Stand by Arrangement of US $ 1.9 billion, he said the government hopes that the IMF would consider only the technical circumstances but not political circumstances in granting this loan. He said Sri Lanka is entitled to have this loan.
The HDCC, CEO Azim Thassim (on left) and the UK Chamber partner representative at the event
The Hambantota District Chamber of Commerce(HDCC) and its UK partner the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce (GMCC) were announced as winners of the Best Networking Project category at the awards presentation of a competition at the 6th World Chamber Congress (WCC) held in Kuala Lumpur last week.
Their post tsunami chamber project beat off strong international competition to win the award, HDCC said in a statement. The competition, organized by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and the World Chambers Federation (WCF), is the only global awards programme to recognize the most innovative projects undertaken by chambers of commerce and industry from around the world.
The 2009 edition of the World Chambers Competition attracted 47 entries from 33 countries, from which 19 finalist projects were selected. The winners were announced at a special ceremony last day of the WCC.
Following the December 2004 tsunami, the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce (GMCC) and its service delivery company, Manchester Solutions (MS), took a decision to invest in a programme to support the economic re-development of tsunami-affected areas. Research was carried out in Indonesia and Sri Lanka to find suitable organizations with which a relationship could be built to provide support in re-establishing the business infrastructure of the tsunami-affected areas.
The HDCC was approached, due to the fact that it is a key and well-respected player regionally and nationally in Sri Lanka and is regarded as one of the most advanced district-level chambers in the country. The Hambantota District of Sri Lanka was particularly affected by the tsunami disaster, the HDCC statement said.
Early in 2005, GMCC and HDCC entered into an initial, three-year Partnership Agreement, to work together and share ideas. Richard Guy, Chief Executive of the Manchester Solutions Group said,
"For over four years now we have been working closely on a series of development projects associated with the development of the Hambantota district as well as of HDCC itself. This has included initiatives to support the economic development of Hambantota, to stimulate the local tourism industry, and also to improve HDCC's effectiveness by expanding its job placement services.”
Will fast track Hambantota Port development, China’s Commerce Minister tells Prof. Peiris in Beijing: The Government of the People’s Republic of China, in recognition of the unique opportunities now available in Sri Lanka for the development of the economy, will accelerate implementation of the Hambantota port project and other major initiatives, China’s Commerce Minister Chen Deming assured Export Development and International Trade Minister Prof. G.L. Peiris at their meeting in Beijing. The 75-minute meeting, which was attended by Sri Lanka’s Ambassador in China, Karunatilleke Amunugama covered a wide range of issues relating to co-operation between the two countries. Prof. Peiris conveyed to the Chinese Government the warm appreciation of President Mahinda Rajapaksa for China’s consistent and vigorous support in safeguarding the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Sri Lanka and for the assistance given towards the welfare of displaced civilians. A consignment of tents worth RMB 20 million had been handed over in Colombo at the end of May, the Minister said, while China had also made a contribution of US$ 1 million. Sri Lanka sought concessions to reduce the trade gap and to enhance trade volumes under the Asia Pacific Trade Agreement. As Sri Lanka’s major exports to China are a few products such as tea, spices, rubber products, coconut fibre, gems and jewellery, cosmetics, herbal products, handicrafts and fish, Minister Peiris urged concessions comparable with those enjoyed by ASEAN countries. He also suggested modalities for expanding the number of products in the preferential duty category. Minister Peiris emphasised that the tea trade in Sri Lanka is eager to obtain an import quota for Sri Lankan tea to China at zero duty level. Under the APTA regime, Sri Lanka tea is entitled to a preferential tariff of 7.5 percent. He urged Chinese investors to reap the benefits of the flexible investment regime adopted by the Sri Lankan Government, especially in the context of the Northern and Eastern Provinces Re-awakening Program spearheaded by the Government for infrastructure projects relating to roads, housing, water, electricity and tourism. Minister Peiris referred to the visit by President Rajapaksa to the Hainan Province in Southern China a few months ago to attend the Boao Summit, and to President Rajapaksa’s discussions on that occasion with Chinese President Hu Jin Tao at which both Prof. Peiris and his Chinese counterpart were present. By way of follow up to that discussion, Prof. Peiris warmly thanked the Chinese Government for the valuable co-operation extended towards implementation of the Hambantota Port Development Project, the Puttalam Thermal Power Project and the Performing Arts Theatre. He said that Sri Lanka looks forward to the benefits of technology transfer from China for product development through value addition, especially in the rubber and food processing sectors. China’s Commerce Minister Chen Deming told the Minister Prof. Peiris that China greatly values her long and close friendship with Sri Lanka and that, in the post-conflict scenario now developing in Sri Lanka, closer collaboration in respect of the economy is entirely appropriate. He assured the Sri Lankan Minister that existing projects, especially those which would enable the benefits of peace to be realised in full, will be put on a fast track. The Chinese Government, he added, is ready to receive from Sri Lanka proposals with regard to new projects which are now feasible in the transformed situation, together with an indication of priorities. Prof. Peiris delivered a keynote address at the inaugural session of the Fourth China-South Asia Business Forum in Kunming, and was invited to unveil the ceremonial plaque at the launching ceremony. 58 business leaders from Sri Lanka participated in the South Asian Commodities Trade Exhibition.
The Rajapaksas and Ruhuna 2. Historians maintain that the civilization dynamic of Ruhuna derives from the confluence of two factors. These are the deeply engrained patriotism of the Ruhunu people on the one side and the continuous inflow of external influences on account of the geo-political location of Ruhuna on the busiest sea lane in the world - the sea route from the west to the east, on the other. New ideas, new technologies, new ideologies, new forms of art and architecture, new world-views etc continuously entered Ruhuna from India, South East Asia, the Middle East and Europe, through its main sea port - Godawaya (at the mouth of the Walawe Ganga) from pre Christian times till the 14th century and then Galle (from the 14th to the nineteenth century). 3. Godawaya (a river-mouth port), at the mouth of the Walawe was a relatively shallow port. Therefore, as the ships using the main sea lane that skirts the coast of Ruhuna became bigger and heavier, Godawaya's depth became inadequate and the main port of Ruhuna (and at that time of the whole island) shifted to Galle. With this shift, the commercial, social, cultural and political elites of Magam Pattu and Giruwa Pattu (the present Hambantota district) began to decline, and together with the expansion of the port of Galle, new commercial, social, cultural and political elites emerged in the Galle district. No longer around the river-mouth port of Godawaya and the city of Magama, but around the port city of Galle, Ruhuna continued to function as an ever-dynamic fountain-head of Sinhala civilization, continuing to celebrate the ever continuing marriage of patriotism and cultural rootedness on the one side and exposure to external influence and modernisation on the other. 4. Until its economic and commercial lifeline, namely the port of Galle, began to decline with the progressive expansion of the port of Colombo, Ruhunu continued to reflect the healthy fusion of patriotism and modernity. In the early 1850's, a then modern entrepreneur of Sapugoda in the Galle district, by name Don Constantine De Silva Waniga Chintamani Mohotti Ralahamy, started developing a series of modern capitalist enterprises in the Giruwa Pattu. He introduced into the Giruwa Patta a system of what was then recognized to be modern agriculture with modern technology and wage labour in place of feudal tenant farming and at the same time engaged in property development in the then fledgling town of Tangalla. His then modern enterprises were headquartered at Buddiyagama in Weeraketiya - the seat of the Rajapaksas, - and their management was entrusted to a modernist but patriotic young man of Buddiyagama - the grandfather of DA Rajapaksa and the great-grand-father of Chamal and Mahinda. 5. From those early days in the mid 19th century, the Rajapaksa family has continued to represent and personify the socio-political dynamic of Ruhuna - namely, the healthy fusion of patriotism and cultural identity on the one side with the challenge of social, economic and political modernity on the other. In the first half of the twentieth century, the Rajapaksas led the social democratic struggle of the people of Hambantota against feudal land relations and against the Mudaliar and Vidane Arachchi based feudal system of administration and governance. They also pioneered the social struggle against caste discrimination and prejudice during the same period. Thus, the Rajapaksas were the undisputed leaders of the anti-imperialist national democratic movement in the Hambantota district, as SA Wickremasinghe was in the Matara district and leaders like Abeygunasekera were in Galle. The Rajapaksas thus represented and still continue to represent the fusion of patriotism, democracy, progress and modernity. This is what the memory of DA Rajapaksa rekindles in the contemporary politics of the South. 6. When SWRD Bandaranaike walked out of the then UNP government on 12th July 1951 to be the flag bearer of the anti-imperialist and social democratic forces in the country, it was none other than DA Rajapaksa who accompanied him across the floor of the house on that historic day. Not only from the day it was founded in September 1951 but from the very moment of its conception in July that year, the Bandaranaikes and Rajapaksas have been the 'Ying and the Yang' of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party. 7. The fusion of patriotism and modernity - the hallmark of the Rajapaksas and the hallmark of Ruhuna - is reflected in the very personality of DA Rajapaksa. On the one side he was educated at Richmond College, Galle, and was tutored by foreign missionary scholars like the legendary Rev. Small. He was vice-captain of the Richmond College cricket team and captain of the football team. The ground record he established as a bowler on the Prince of Wales College grounds in Moratuwa in the nineteen twenties still remains untouched. On the other side, on leaving school he was able to step out of the cricket field onto the paddy fields and kurakkan chenas of Giruwa Pattu with the greatest ease, and identify himself both socially and culturally with the peasants of his own Hambantota district. DA Rajapaksa was patriotism and modernity personified. 8. The lifeline of Ruhuna was its exposure to the outside world through commerce, trade and the inflow of new ideas, technologies and ideologies. The lifeline of Ruhuna was therefore its sea port - Godawaya and then Galle. Thus when the importance of Galle gave way to the commercial and political centrality of Colombo in and after the nineteenth century, the economic, commercial, social, political and cultural elites of Ruhuna started to decline. But when in the nineteen eighties, Ariyaseela Wickremanayake, a harbour construction engineer and a passionate son of Ruhuna began to lobby for the construction of a deep water harbour in Hambantota, demonstrating its potential of being developed as the deepest and largest harbour in the world, with a location just half an hour off the world's busiest sea-lane which is used by 100 - 200 ships a day, the present day Rajapaksas came forward to give political muscle to a project that will surely not only modernize Ruhuna but also lead the country as a whole towards a future of affluence and prosperity. At the turn of the present millennium, in 2001, DA Rajapaksa's sons ceremonially laid the foundation stone for the construction of the world's largest and deepest harbour at Hambantota while Ariyseela Wickremanayake navigated a large ship into the proposed harbour to prove to all that this dream is not by any means a fantasy. Some day, the construction of the proposed Hambantota harbour - the dream of the present day Rajapaksas of Ruhuna - will bring in its wake not only a revival of the past glory of Ruhuna but a economic, social, cultural and political resurgence of the country as a whole.
(Prepared by Sunimal Fernando)1. Ruhuna, comprising by and large the present day districts of Hambantota, Galle, Matara and Moneragala, has been a mainspring of Sri Lankan civilization for over 2300 years. Throughout this period, Ruhuna has produced some of the greatest thinkers, artists, writers, religious leaders, social reformers, politicians and visionaries our country has known.
And as we move into the twenty first century and into an age of rapid communication, travel and spatial mobility, Ruhuna ceases to be a spatial concept - a distinct territory or piece of land. In this modern age of Information and Communication Technology, Ruhuna transcends its territorial limits to present itself increasingly as a Value, a Vision, whose features are a healthy fusion of Patriotism and Modernity, resting on a socio-political bed of Social Democracy. Ruhuna, therefore, in this modern age of Information and Communication is no longer a piece of territory as it was in the past, but a Socio-Political Value or Ideology. And with the concept of Ruhuna thus transformed, the social heroes and political leaders of what was once a piece of territory called Ruhuna are now the standard bearers of a distinct political ideology rooted no doubt in the historical dynamics of a particular piece of territory but belonging no longer to that distinctive area or territory, namely the So
By S.R. Pathiravithana
Sri Lanka will go into the hosting of the 2011 World Cup with the introduction of a brand new cricket stadium in the deep south, staging at least two of the matches there.Duleep Mendis S. Liyanagama
According to Sri Lanka Cricket Competent Authority S. Liyanagama, the Hambantota International Cricket Stadium which will be constructed at “Meegahajandura” in the Hambantota District will be introduced to the ICC list as an alternate venue but will subsequently be named as one of the main venues to host World Cup matches to be played in Sri Lanka in February 2011.
“We are hoping to start construction work by the end of March. The major portion of the financing for this project will come from India and we have formalized the preliminary work,” said Liyanagama, who is also the secretary to the Ministry of Sports.
However, much is still to be done with the hosting of the World Cup 2011 proper in the Indian sub-continent. India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh – the four major players in cricket in the sub-continent -- are billed to host this event which will run for six weeks and have a maximum of 49 matches. Of the 15 World Cup venues, eight would be in India, four in Pakistan, two in Sri Lanka and one in Bangladesh.
According to Sri Lanka Cricket CEO Duleep Mendis, at present the first choices of the Sri Lanka venues were the R. Premadasa Stadium and the Rangiri Dambulla Stadium, venues where day-night matches could be held. He said two other stadiums have been named as alternate venues.
Last week the four neighbours met in earnest to cast aside differences and seek ways of hosting this gigantic event in the sub-continent. However, International Cricket Council (ICC) CEO Haroon Lorgat requested the 2011 Cricket World Cup organising committee to ‘consider shifting venues’ in case the political scenario in Pakistan worsened over the next 12 to 15 months.
According to reports coming from New Delhi, Lorgat while addressing a news conference after that crucial meeting of the 2011 World Cup Central Organising Committee said the turmoil in Pakistan was a "consideration" for the governing body which asked the organisers to consider alternate venues in case of an emergency.
Duleep Mendis explaining the matter to The Sunday Times said, “World Cup 2011 is a long way off and many changes could come by during that time frame. However, if there is a real need, the other three countries may have to share the rest of the matches.”
Sri Lanka is the only country that has toured Pakistan in recent times with Australia, England and India pulling out of their FTP tours for various reasons.
The ICC has placed Australia and New Zealand as the alternate venue if the Indian sub-continent finds it difficult to go-ahead with the hosting of the tournament.
Those present at the meeting were -- Pakistan Cricket Board President Ejaz Butt and CEO Saleem Altaf, BCCI Secretary N Srinivasan, Chief Administrative Officer Ratnakar Shetty, Sri Lanka Cricket CEO Duleep Mendis and Bangladesh Cricket Board officials attended the meeting presided by the Organising Committee Chairman Sharad Pawar.
Meanwhile, the Stanford T20 series which was to be held just prior to the T20 World Cup in England had been cancelled with the fall from grace of American Cricketing Billionaire Sir, Alan Stanford.
Sri Lanka was billed to take part in this tournament which also featured England, New Zealand and a Stanford All Stars outfit.
The SLC CEO explaining the situation said, “Now that this tournament is out we must look out for some other warm-up matches preferably in the same format”.
February 22nd, 2009 - 12:32 pm ICT by IANS - Send to a friend:Colombo, Feb 22 (IANS) India will fund building a brand new cricket stadium in Sri Lanka's southern Hambantota district, where the authorities expect to host at least a couple of 2011 World ...
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Hambantota is a rural town in southern coastal area of Sri Lanka. It is also the capital of the Hambantota District in the Southern Province of Sri Lanka. Hambantota is the electoral district of current president of Sri Lanka Mahinda Rajapaksa.
Hambantota District is comprised of following electorals: Tissamaharama, Beliatta, Tangalle and Mulkirigala.
Hambantota is famous for its salt flats and intensely hot arid zone climate. With sweeping sandy beaches on the side, it is also a convenient base for exploring the nearby Bundala National Park, Yala National Park and the temples at Kataragama.
In the past, Hambantota was a sleepy old sea-side village reminiscent of those grand old days of Leonard Woolf, who was the Assistant Government Agent-Hambantota (1908-11). He was a literary scholar being the author of the fascinating novel – ‘The Village in the Jungle', that gives a vivid description of old Hambantota district which was plagued then with Malaria, poverty, and how British used the jungles of Hambantota as their famous hunting grounds. His printed diaries (1908-11), are filled with authentic records of the life and times of the hardships of those starving but grief stricken chena (slash and burn agriculture) cultivators.
Please be aware that the sea current in Hambantota is very strong. Even being a very good swimmer locals warn you of swimming at this beach. Also be careful when walking along the beach, if you get close to the waves, they are sometimes so strong, that you might fall and even be drawn into the sea! Once you are out there it will be difficult to get in again. If you are not a REALLY good swimmer stay away from the sea. Walk along and enjoy the beach, but don't get too close to the waves. Even for the experienced fishermen it is an every day challenge to go out into the sea. In the morning hours (7 AM until 09 AM) the sea is more quiet.
Herbal farmer Village project of the Ministry of Indigenous Medicine started on 28th, March 2005 and it was expected by this project to minimize the cost increased annually for the foreign countries for the import of dried herbs. A survey conducted in 2000 revealed that nearly a sum of Rs 125 Million is annually spent for the dried herbs. There had been a much import of dried herbs such as Katuwelbatu, Amukkara, Asamodagam, welmee, Pathpadagam and Dewadara. The major expectation of this project was to identify herbs which are locally cultivatable and turn out a new farmer community for the cultivation of herbs to popularize this cultivation as a source of income generation. The progress achieved hitherto and its objectives are as follows;
Establishment and maintenance of herbal farmers Village
Development of Herb Gardens
Expansion of herb cultivation in association with Gama Neguma Programmed (100 farmers of lowest income group in 19 districts are selected a
nd they are encouraged for the commercial cultivation of herbs granting them necessary infrastructure facilities.)
Extension of herbal farmer village programme in the villages affected by terrorist menace in concurrence with national saviya programme. Accordingly action is being taken to divert the Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim communities in the Divisional secretary’s Division of Gomarankadawala to the cultivation of Katuvelbatu.
Hambantota: - 417 farmers selected from Meegahajandura, Bandagiriya, Andaraweva and Gannoruwa contributed to the activities of the herbal farmer village project in Hambantota. They cultivate Elabatu, Katuvelbatu, Enderu and Asamodagam. A farmer should cultivate ¼ acre or 1 ½ acres to the maximum for Elabatu cultivation. A farmer receives an income ranging from around Rs. 5000/- to Rs. 15,000/- from the fruits of Elabatu cultivation. In particular the inhabitants of such villages which underwent. Tsunami devastation use elabatu for their food every day. The reason is that Elabatu cultivation resists even severe drought. The farmers, after reaping the fruits, sell the remaining part of the Elabatu tree (totally dried tree) to the Ayurvedic drugs co-operation at a price of Rs. 35/- 45/- under the facilities of this project. It has been a source of income of the farmers as well as a source of Ayurvedic Drugs Corporation to obtain dried elabatu roots of required standard (It has been revealed that the external suppliers mostly provide vambatu roots falsely).
On 25.02.2006, 2100 kilograms of Elabatu roots were handed over to the Ayurvedic drugs co-operation as a first harvest of elabatu cultivation in Hambantota. The farmers were able to earn around a sum of Rs. 63,000/- Such farmers have set up farmers societies and action is being taken by this project to provide machines to such societies to extract oil from the seeds such as kohomba and mee. It has been planned to earn an additional income from extraction of oil from the seeds collected by the society in the Hambantota district. Accordingly action has already been initiated to introduce a saving scheme for the farmers. Our expectation is to motivate the farmers to save 25% of their income from the cultivation of herbs. The main demand of the farmers is to provide them barbed wires to construct a fence for the protection of their cultivation from the cattle. It is expected to make arrangements to meet their demand under this project in view of their need deviating from our objective to provide them infrastructure facilities.
From 1979 to 1983, ITDG collaborated with the Sri Lankan NGO, Sarvodaya, to develop a domestic cooking stove which would conserve fuel and reduce smoke. The design which was produced has subsequently been promoted under the Ministry of Power and Energy's National Fuelwood Conservation Programme, which is now operating in several districts. Hambantota was one of the first to become involved and, to date, has by far the greatest concentration of stoves.
This paper will outline the evolving pattern of biomass energy production, distribution and use in Hambantota district, as a context within which to assess how beneficial the new stoves have been..[top] [end]Background
Hambantota covers an area of 2600 square km. and stretches for about 130 kms. along the southeast coast of Sri Lanka. The population is a little less than 0.5 mn. The largest urban centres Tangalle, Ambalantota and Hambantota - all lie close to the coast, and each have approximately 10,000 inhabitants. More than 90% of the population live in rural areas, and agriculture is by far the most important occupation. Manufacturing is confined largely to cottage and small-scale industries and accounts for less than 10% of total employment.
The western part of the district, comprising some 30% of the total land area, falls mainly in the "intermediate" climatic zone, with average annual rainfall in the range 1210 to 1900 mm. Population densities here vary from 300 to 450 per square km.
The extreme west is mainly under coconut plantations. A little further down the coast, these give way to smaller home gardens which are devoted mainly to vegetable cultivation; but in both areas there is also a significant amount of land under paddy. Moving further inland, beyond the home gardens, is an area where shifting cultivation (chena) is practiced.
The remaining 70% of the land to the east, is part of the dry zone, where annual rainfall is below 1270 mm. Population densities here presently vary from 50 to 200 per square km. This area has experienced four major changes in the last generation, each of which has had important implications for fuel availability and use. In order of occurrence, these were:[top] [end]The Production, Distribution and Use of Biomass Fuels (2)
In the dry eastern part of the district, wood from the weera and palu trees are the preferred and most commonly used biomass fuels. They are obtained from cleared chenas, but as the number of settlers has increased, rotation cycles have shortened, and supplies have diminished. This has had three major effects:
Nearly all urban consumers purchase their fuel, and the market is dominated by weera and palu. Real prices have only risen slightly over the last five years, which seems surprising, since the carters who bring the wood from the chenas must now travel much further to obtain their supplies than hitherto. The reason why this has not been reflected in much higher prices lies in the greater competition between suppliers which has arisen as increasing numbers of farmers have been forced into the fuel trade by the drought.
But carters will not be able to go on accepting declining returns for their work indefinitely and there is a general feeling that in a further three to four years, it will no longer be viable for them to continue to practice their trade. As this occurs, they will be replaced by larger entrepreneurs, relying on lorries to bring in fuel from further afield; and at this point it seems inevitable that prices will rise sharply.
There have also been changes in the western part of the district, although their impact had been less pronounced than in the east:
In Tangalle, the only major urban centre in the west, fuel consumption patterns are more diversified than in the towns to the east. A significant minority of households here have their own home gardens supplying coconut wastes; and where fuels are purchased these may come from a number of different sources. These include weera and palu brought in by carters from chenas, and as in the east, these are now in shorter supply than hitherto. But consumers in Tangalle are also able to draw on coconut wood wastes from saw mills, on other plantation byproducts such as cinnamon sticks, and on coconut wastes transported short distances into the town by home garden owners. The availability of alternative sources of reasonable quality has, in other words, compensated for the shortages of other fuels. The transition to the situation where it is no longer feasible to supply these fuels to the town by cart, should therefore be accomplished with less difficulty than in the east.[top] [end]The Stoves Project
The project to disseminate new cooking stoves started in 1985. Funding was provided under the Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP), with Assistant Government Agent's (AGA) offices taking responsibility for day to day administration. Staff from the Rural Energy Centre at Patiyapolla have also been actively involved. Prior to our own research, the IRDP had already carried out its own investigation (3), and it was possible to draw on this in formulating our own conclusions.
By mid-1987, about 20,000 stoves had been installed in the district, and the IRDP study found average reported fuel savings of 25%. This figure was difficult to substantiate, but did not appear unrealistic in the light of our own enquiries, which revealed that the majority of new stoves were being adopted by households who had previously used the highly energy inefficient three stone system.
These favourable indicators cannot be discounted, but closer examination, conducted in the light of the trends in fuel availability and use discussed above, suggests that the full potential of the project has not been realised.
Limitations stem from the fact that the strategy pursued seems simply to have been to encourage the dissemination of as many stoves as possible, with little regard to the effect on fuel savings of who was adopting, or where adoption was taking place. Three specific consequences followed from this.
Firstly, although some stoves have been adopted by members of all major socio-economic groups, there has been a tendency - pronounced in the IRDP study, less marked in our own - for rates of adoption to be highest amongst government servants and other professional groups, and lowest among poorer groups such as labourers. In the absence of clear guidelines to the contrary, it seems that those promoting the stove have tended, understandably, to pay disproportionate attention to their own peer group.
Leaving considerations of equity aside, this is almost certainly inefficient. The urban poor would suffer most from fuel price increases, and would therefore be more inclined than other urban groups to take full advantage of the new stove. Similarly, in the rural areas, the poorest households are those who are least likely to be able to obtain adequate fuel from their home gardens, and hence most likely to put the new stoves to good use.
Targetting these groups would be complicated by an unwillingness on the part of some households to install a new stove before they have been able to effect other improvements in their kitchens, but if savings can be shown to be as great as is claimed, and the present high level of subsidisation is retained, then this resistance should not be difficult to overcome.
The second consequence of the lack of a clear allocation policy has been for adoptions to cluster around existing rural development projects, and around the town of Tangalle - where the AGA has proved enthusiastic, and where the influence of the nearby Patiyapolla Centre has also been apparent.
The effects of "project" bias are difficult to discern, but the concentration around Tangalle, which is especially pronounced, appears sub optimal in the light of the earlier discussion about the relative extent to which shortages are likely to develop in different parts of the district. The indications are quite clearly that it is in the dry east, where the fuels conventionally used are under greatest pressure, and where there are few opportunities for people to successfully adapt to shortages by themselves, that stoves will be likely to have the greater impact.
Thirdly, a case might be made for giving towns a greater priority than rural areas, on the grounds that urban consumers would have virtually no option other than to pay more if prices increased. Most rural consumers, by contrast, would enjoy at least some flexibility of response.
Whether this final point can be represented as a criticism of the project is hard to determine, since available records make it difficult to be sure how many users are urban and how many are rural. But overall, it is fairly clear that prior and more explicit consideration of the context into which stoves were to be introduced, would have led to a situation where greater wood fuel savings could have been achieved, and where other benefits could have been optimised.[top] [end]Notes
The author refers to the loss of forest cover in the survey area. There has also been a major loss of forest from the Victoria Dam hydro electric project in nearby parts of Sri Lanka. One of the factors affecting the supply of fuelwood is said to be the 3 year drought. Does he consider this to be cause and effect and if so can it be expected to continue or recurr and so have a long term effect on fuel supplies and perhaps population densities and fuel requirements?
Feizal Samath, Hambantota
H M Premachandra, a 52-year-old farmer in Sri Lanka, doesn't come across as someone who would take on the country's first citizen-President Mahinda Rajapaksa. But he, along with 800 families in the southern coastal district of Hambantota, succeeded in stalling the country's plans to build an international airport in Hambantota town, the capital of the district.
"There was no agenda. It was not a personal battle; I fought in the national interest. Why did the Rajapaksas back out? Maybe because we were honest," said Premachandra. The move entailed fighting the Rajapaksa brothers-Chamal, minister for ports and shipping, and Basil, adviser to the president.
Premachandra said that the farmers did not object to an airport in the district; its location was the bone of contention. "Better places exist for this project in Hambantota. Why choose 1,125 hectares in Buttala, an area with fertile land and about 2,500 families from seven villages dependent on it? Also, the area is bound on three sides by protected areas," said Premachandra who is the president of a paddy farmers' society in the district known for its beaches and national parks.
In March 2006, the president apprised farmers and Hambantota residents of the project. People objected but the president pronounced the government would go ahead. In May 2006, the farmers filed a petition in the court. They claimed that the environmental impact assessment was not done.
But the court ordered that the issue was premature and asked the farmers to get back after construction on the site had begun. The protracted protests lasted until July 2008, when the government announced that it would abandon work at the planned site and move the project to some other location.
The government's rationale for a second international airport at Hambantota was growing hurdles at a distance of about 250 km-Colombo city. The capital was getting more congested. It was becoming increasingly cumbersome and time consuming to reach areas outside Colombo because of narrow and poorly maintained roads. Hambantota seemed ideal because it had a lot of space and was close to key tourist hubs in the south.
But farmers said the airport would affect the livelihoods of hundreds of their fraternity and disrupt a bird sanctuary, host to millions of migratory birds every year. Premachandra said their protest was not to just protect the farmland. "Birds too have a right to live. Also, can you value paddy land in rupees in a country where the economy is driven by rice production and consumption? If we lose such land, we lose our food security," he said.
The government had accused that the Marxist People's Liberation Front (or JVP), of which Premachandra is a member, had instigated the campaign. "I have been a member of other political parties in the past. This had nothing to do with politics, the way it was made out to be. We were fighting for our rights and a common cause," he said, laughing. The JVP, as a coalition partner of an alliance that helped Rajapaksa win the election, subsequently pulled out of the coalition and is now critical of the government, accusing it of corruption and mismanagement.
Hambantota, constituency of the current president, was considered the second most impoverished district in Sri Lanka. Things changed after Rajapaksa assumed office in 2005. Construction of a harbour-cum-port is apace in the district. It is on a crucial shipping line through which about 300 ships pass everyday. The roads have been paved and expanded. An oil refinery is also in the pipeline.
People want development because it will bring more jobs, said Premachandra, but not at the cost of fertile land.
(CSE/Down To Earth Feature Service)
In March and April, Revolution correspondent Michael Slate traveled all over Sri Lanka, one of the places hardest hit by the tsunami of December 2004. Slate talked to many different people about the tsunami and the oppression and suffering that continue to unfold. This is the third in a series of reports by Slate that will appear in Revolution over the coming weeks. It was incredibly quiet, serene actually, as we drove along the coast through Matara and headed on around to Hambantota on the southeastern rim of the island just as it begins to turn north. The road stretches alongside some really beautiful beaches. The seas are calm and unimaginably blue. The waves are small and rhythmic, soothing in their repetition as they quietly and softly roll ashore. Somewhere between the town of Tangalle and Hambantota, the weather zone shifts from wet to dry. Much of the coastline here is shielded from monsoons, and seas are good for fishing almost all year round. Hambantota is often described as a bustling town with little to offer visitors. It's close to some national parks, but for most tourists its biggest claim to fame is that Leonard Woolf, husband of writer Virginia Woolf, was the British government agent here in 1908 and wrote about the town in his book A Village in the Jungle. Aside from fishing, the other main industry in the town is salt production carried out by the ancient method of evaporating sea water in salt pans. A week earlier we had lunch with a couple of tsunami volunteers from L.A. Their families are Sri Lankan immigrants now settled in southern California. They had arrived in Sri Lanka in early January and had done volunteer gigs all along the southern coast. They were filled with stories of what they had seen and what they had learned— including many stories about government corruption and dishonesty woven in and out of the relief aid distribution efforts. They described Hambantota as the worst-hit spot they had come across. They would say no more, simply telling us we had to visit the town and see for ourselves. The people in Hambantota are mostly Muslim. As we sat in the middle of a large expanse of dirt littered with broken rock and coconut shells, the noon prayers chanted over a loudspeaker in a nearby mosque were the only sign that we had arrived in Hambantota. The entire town—except for a few semi-wrecked buildings, a couple of ragged ruins and a few dozen scattered wooden huts and tents made of heavy white canvas—was gone, completely destroyed and washed away in the tsunami. Most of the ruins left in the wake of the tsunami were bulldozed down and plowed under by the government within a few days of the tsunami. So all that was left was this huge dirt field. A few dozen men sought shade under the coconut trees scattered along the beach. As we tried to understand what it must have been like in Hambantota when the tsunami hit, a man with an angry gash on his left leg pedaled up on an old bicycle. His name was Jabari, born and raised in Hambantota. "I am 40 years old and I have been a fisherman for 22 years now. I have a small catamaran and that's how I make my livelihood. On the day of the tsunami I had gone out to sea. I was gone the whole night and had just come back. I was at my mother's and had just taken a wash when the tsunami hit. About 8:30 I was playing with my sister's kids and some of the kids in the neighborhood. Then about 9:15 there was a gush of water coming towards us. I came out and looked and there was a huge sound which I can not describe. With the sound came a whole wave of water that went above us. It drowned us. Then I got washed away. I was carrying a four-year-old child. Then a wall crumbled and buried me and I lost this child. Altogether we lost five children in my extended family. I lost my own four-month- old child. I found my child's body in Colombo at the Borella morgue." Jabari stopped talking for a moment. The noontime prayers from the mosque were the only sound to be heard. His eyes welled with tears and his voice cracked as he continued. "Before the tsunami there were very good buildings on both sides of the road there. There were some shops and double-story homes. People had worked very hard all their life to build up their homes. This was a fairly prosperous place. There were maybe about 10 commercial establishments like guest houses and hotels and about 400 homes. "The government says that about 4,500 people lost their lives here. But that was the village fair day [a farmers' market], and you would have close to 5,000 people here. And then if you take the people in their homes and total it up there would be over 7,000 people killed, not less." Jabari pointed to what remained of a low stone structure. "The village fair was conducted along this stretch of coastal land, and all of that was washed away. And 90% of the people who were at the fair were washed away. Many of the 10% who survived were wounded." Hambantota depended entirely on the sea for its existence. Fishing and salt production —that was what had kept the vast majority of people alive for more than a century. When the sea turned on them, it not only killed thousands of people but destroyed the main source of survival for many thousands more. Pointing to a mid-size boat that sat in the middle of the field like it had been dropped from the sky, Jabari went on. "My house was located where inland water came to the sea. There was a sort of big canal there and this is where the water came the most fiercely. My house was razed to the ground—not even a brick remains. Even the foundation is hard to recognize. When the water came it went over our heads and we were all swept away, so we don't really know how high it went. But we know that we were swept away. When my sister's daughter was screaming `Uncle, uncle, please help me,' I couldn't get to her because the water was so violent and swirling. I have never seen anything so forceful or violent in my life. "When I came here and saw what happened I didn't know what to do. I just sat here and cried. I thought everybody was gone. Then somebody came up and told me that my mother and some of the elder people are there, but the children are all gone. They told me to go and look for the children and that's what I did." Like most of the survivors in Hambantota, Jabari is still not very clear about what exactly happened, what exactly a tsunami is, why it happened, or why it caused so much destruction, death and pain. But, again like many others in his town, the desperate sadness in Jabari's voice is quickly replaced with anger—especially when he talks about the Sri Lankan government and how it treats the people. "Look, the tsunami hit Trincomalee [upper northeast part of the island] at about 7:30 in the morning and there are all kinds of equipment there—the Navy, Armed Forces, all kinds of communications, they have it all. It came here about 9:30 and Galle about 10 so they could have easily sent an alarm. But evidently the government officials were not doing their duty. Government bureaucracy as a whole, they only pass laws against the people. But they enjoy all the freedom in the sense of privileges. And they have no sense of working or sense of duty. "All these acres of land here, it was all houses and all close together with the children's park right there. This has all been destroyed and devastated. And the government came next and flattened all this. They want a harbor here. They say it's safe to have a harbor within 100 meters of here, but it's not safe to have a house here. The government has been trying to acquire this land for about two or three years now, and the people have resisted, saying these are our homes, this is where we were born, and we are not going away. So the government took the opportunity right after the tsunami to just grab it. Less than four days after the tsunami they came and bulldozed everything. Even the walls that remained or whatever, they just bulldozed it and didn't even bother to see if there were corpses." As I spoke with Jabari, another man approached us and stood waiting for the conversation to end. His name was Saboor, and his shy smile was in stark contrast with his intense and anxious eyes. He took my arm and began to walk me across the field towards a white tent, all the while explaining, "You can't live here, can't breathe. It is too hot! If we can't stay here then how do you expect infants and children to stay here? "My hut was here but I was in the town when the tsunami hit. From the town I just saw some little bit of disturbance, some waves coming up. And then suddenly it came into a big wave and went into the town, washed over everything in the town and took it away. And all of our boats were taken away by the sea. Then the sea receded and we went after our boats, to try to recover our boats. And then we could see that the wave was coming back. I came over to where the village fair was because that was the area where we all lived. Everything was washed away by the time I got here, including my house. So this was just a wasteland. I lost 14 people in my family—my wife, my three daughters, my mother, my sister and her children. We looked for their bodies for two days, but we could only find the body of my mother." We arrived at Saboor's tent. He challenged us to come in and see how long we could take the noontime heat. Inside his tent was a sand floor and two mosquito coils. He had nothing else but the clothes on his back. Everything was taken by the tsunami. The heat in the tent was almost visible—the air seemed to have a wavy appearance. I think we lasted about three or four minutes inside the tent—it was impossible to breathe, it felt like your lungs were collapsing. Our clothes were soaked and our eyes were burning from dripping sweat. This was the "relief" offered to Saboor and so many others left homeless after the tsunami all over Sri Lanka. The outside temperature was in the upper 90s, but when we stepped outside the tent it was like we walked into a refreshing cool breeze. Saboor shook his head and said, "It is only at night that I come here to this tent. Sometimes our friends come here, but all we can do is sleep here. What else can we do?" Saboor walked us over to a coconut tree grove where a group of his friends relaxed in the shade. Kannan, a tall, thin man in his early thirties wearing a Chicago White Sox hat, invited us to sit with them. He laughed when Saboor told the group how long we were able to stay inside the tent. Then he said, "It is very, very sad that we all have to live like this now. We all had a sense of dignity and we all lived well. We were not living off of anybody. We earned our way, we earned our life. We lived in fairly good homes. But suddenly now we are reduced to living in tents. And it is burning inside there, you can't stay inside there for more than five minutes. We get beaten by the sun—and then we get beaten by the rains and all the water comes into the tents. "We feel that we are being played with because they bring in this 100-meters buffer zone rule [a law the government has been trying to enforce along the coastline in the wake of the tsunami that forbids people to live within 100 meters of the ocean]. And we don't know if we should come back and build new houses. We don't have any other land, this is our title land. We own this land. But then suddenly the Prime Minister comes here and says that this is forbidden territory and says we can't build here because it would be against the law. Well, if it is against the law, then take over the land and build us up alternative homes—but not five kilometers away. They must have a practical plan and a solution." We left Saboor and his friends and walked across the dirt field to the beach and down towards the ocean. The sea was really beautiful that day—calm, quiet, bright blue and really inviting. There were a few fishing boats bobbing on the horizon. But as inviting as the sea seemed on a day as hot as it was, no one went anywhere near it. There had been rumors that the full moon exactly three months after the tsunami would bring another tsunami, and people were scared. As one old man explained to me, "We never even heard this word before. We had no idea what it was or what it could do to us, how much pain and suffering it could bring us. Now we know but what can we do. No one tells us anything. So we hear the water will rise tomorrow night and perhaps it will be a new tsunami. We won't stay here for that." Walking across the dirt field meant stepping on the shards of people's lives. A child's broken toy, water-stained photo albums, an old school assignment book with barely visible ink writing across the wrinkled sun-dried pages, smashed videocassettes and even old pants and broken dinner plates littered the area. A few bright red or blue staircases swirled up towards the sky but led nowhere. Only the faintest traces of housing foundations were all that remained of most of Hambantota. As we walked a man approached and showed us pictures on his cell phone. In very broken English he explained, "This is my family—my father's family, my mother's family—it is 60 people dead. I lost everyone, my father, my mother, four brothers. I was going to the mosque on December... and then going to the salt corporation. I got a message at 9:20 that the tsunami has hit my area. My mother was dead, my house was gone." In an unbearably sad voice he explained that the photos on his cell phone were all he had left of his family. He kept that phone on a long necklace around his neck and tucked safely into his breast pocket. As we stood at the edge of the ocean a young Muslim girl talked with us about losing her family and her home. A small group of men stood nearby and watched the conversation. It was clear they were safeguarding her. The girl was 15 and she was irrepressible. After the tsunami she went to live with her cousins and two surviving brothers. She introduced us to her cousin Sadiq, a short, thin 25-year-old man who quickly advised us to move into the shade if we wanted to continue the conversation. "I am a fisherman. On the...th, in the morning time I went to sea and came back at 8 o'clock. I went home at 8:45 and stayed there. Then after 9:15 I came out from the house and was standing on the sea- side of the house and casting my net for fish. Then I thought, why is the sea standing? I never thought this could happen. This never happened before. So I ran to my house and told my father that the sea is coming to us and that we cannot stay and we must go. After we went, the sea was very high power and it came to us and it smashed all things, the walls and the trees. All of that was broken. My father and mother all got caught in that water. I escaped from the sea. I ran for one kilometer to escape. Then after the tsunami went down, I came back to see the dead bodies of my parents. I found my home broken and people's bodies around it. I buried in the mosque five bodies. "After that I had no place to stay so now I am staying in friends' houses. I am trying to find a house some other place. They are trying to put us on the jungle side, but I don't like to go there because I am a fisherman. I accept that I can build a house on the place where I lost my house. If I am there then I can go to sea again. I had a boat and canoes, and I lost everything. My boat had everything in it, and if I get this replaced then I can go back to sea. Now it is three months that I didn't go to sea because I don't have the things I need to go to sea. "So I am living day by day. I have no alternative. Until I get a solution from the government or from others I have to survive. Until then I can only survive."A Town Washed Away by the Waves
Jabari's Story
"That boat there was anchored at sea and the tsunami just picked it up and brought it ashore. There were about 400 fishing boats here and all of them were destroyed. Some were completely taken away, washed away by the tsunami, and others were broken into two or three pieces. I have not been able to get back to the sea or have any kind of livelihood since the tsunami. Several offices have been established here to supposedly help the people. I have gone to them and told them that if they could give me some equipment then I can find a catamaran and I will get my life back and I will look after my mother. But up to today no one has done anything for me to help me resume my livelihood.
Reduced to Living in Tents
Shards of People's Lives
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