Severe floods triggered by torrential rains killed at least 18 people and affected over 500,000 in the south western part of Sri Lanka as the island continued to experience unprecedented rain for the fourth consecutive day. Thousands of people have been evacuated and are living in temporary camps setup by the Government in Gampaha and Colombo districts. Latest reports revealed that state of emergency has been declared in the Nuwara Eliya ADP area in the hill country, warning more rainfall and landslides in the coming days.

World Vision Humanitarian Emergency Affairs (HEA) together with the Negombo Area Development Programme staff commenced emergency response last night (19th May) by distributing cooked meals to 2,500 people. Scaled up response continued today (20th May) with over 6,500 cooked food packets distributed to affected families in Wattala, Jaela, Kandana and Pamunugama areas.

Negombo ADP Manager Ajith Gomis said that World Vision is closely working with the relevant Divisional Secretariats assessing the needs of the affected communities. “Dry rations distributed by Government with the assistance of WFP had reached only 5,000 people but there are over 50,000 people who have been displaced in Wattala area alone and the need for food is critical at this point”, he said. 

World Vision is planning to continue the distribution of cooked food packets for next three days while it is also hoping to provide 5,000 liters of potable water per day.

Nikulas Napolean in Pamunugama area said that this is the worst floods in this area since 1950’s. “Last couple of years we have experienced similar rainfall but we were able to use Pamunugama road. But this time we had to use an alternative road because the road is 5 feet under water and no vehicle is allowed to take the road,” he said.

Ursula Kumari in charge of a community cooking centre said that with the rising water level families gathered to her house and later it was turned into a community cooking center. “We started cooking dry rations received by the Government yesterday. With flood water reaching almost every corner, people have no place to live or cook. World Vision’s distribution of cooked food packets is very helpful at this stage for families who have left everything,” she said.