Saudi-built 500 tsunami houses become the topic at the presidential polls

COLOMBO :During this week’s election campaign, presidential candidate and Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa told the voters in the Eastern Province that he, if elected, would take early action to distribute the 500 houses to tsunami victims of the. Island.

At least, Sajith realized the plight of those tsunami victims who were rendered homeless in this tragedy.

The tsunami that hit Sri Lanka in December 2004 killed more than 30,000 people in the island and left another 5,000 people missing from its shores.
In response to an appeal made by Sri Lanka, Saudi Arabia built 500 housing units in Norochcholai, a division in the Ampara District of the island, to house the victims who were rendered homeless.
Successive governments failed to respect the friendly donor country which has shown concern about Sri Lanka’s problems.
In addition to the 500 houses, the SR 420 million township included separate schools for boys and girl, playground, stadium, shopping complex and a mosque. The project was fully More than a decade after tsunami, Lankans’ political wrangling is delaying delivery of Saudi-donated houses.funded by Saudi Charity Fund.

In 2011, the Saudi Government handed the keys of the houses to the then President Mahinda Rajapaksa for distribution among the tsunami victims, who were mainly Muslims in the Amparai District.
The distribution was temporarily suspended on a Court order which instructed the authorities to distribute the houses according to the ratio of the country’s population which has 80% Buddhist population, whereas the Saudi aid was given mainly to help 325 Muslim families who were affected by the tsunami and the remaining houses to be distributed among the other Sinhalese and Tamil communities.

At present, the abandoned housing complex is overgrown with weeds, trees and bushes.
The construction of 500 housing units is part of the agreement signed between Saudi Arabia and Sri Lanka to provide decent shelter to the tsunami victims who suffered severe losses in the tragedy.
Following the disaster in 2004, the Saudi Red Crescent donated a fleet of 15 ambulances and sent a large consignment of medicines and medical equipment to the hospitals in the tsunami-affected areas.

source ColomboTimes.net