Post-Tsunami Cleanup Report - Tangalle Sri Lanka
Posted By Paul Keeley on 2 December 2005
On the 26th December 2004 a major earthquake off the west coast of Sumatra produced a devastating tsunami, which was sometimes over 10 metres high when it crashed into coastal communities. Within hours of the earthquake over 200,000 people had been killed as the tsunami impacted on the shores around the Indian Ocean. Sri Lanka was the second worst affected country with over 30,000 deaths and approximately half a million made homeless. Most of this damage occurred along the coastline south of Colombo within a kilometre of the shore. Thus, a missing persons & death toll of about 400 people from Tangalle area, the figure given to the Mantas Dive Team, seems entirely credible.
The post tsunami humanitarian relief efforts in Sri Lanka were widely praised in the first few months after the disaster. Clean up operations were launched and the threat of epidemics was averted. Basic repairs of the transport infrastructure were also implemented. Furthermore, Sri Lanka was promised $3 billion both for relief aid and to continue the process of long-term development.
However, six months after the tsunami there was increasing frustration concerning the recovery efforts. Few families had received compensation for their losses. Only a few thousand of the 90,000 homes needed had been built. The rule of no buildings within 100 metres of the sea was regarded by many in crowded coastal villages as an unnecessary frustration. There were difficulties & delays in the disbursement of aid in Tamil areas, as Sri Lanka’s fragile peace has threatened the long-term recovery from the combined effects of the tsunami and twenty years of civil war. The August assassination of the Foreign Minister, Mr Kadirgamar, gave an indication of the difficulties facing this beautiful island of Sri Lanka.
It was in this context that the Kuwait Mantas Dive Club were asked in May 2005 if there were any volunteer divers willing to visit the Tangalle area and investigate ways of lifting tsunami debris from the seabed. It was believed that such debris was snagging fishing nets, and thus hindering near-shore fishing and the general economic recovery from the tsunami disaster. By early August Mike Dalton of Kuwait Mantas Club had been put in contact with two Sri Lankan organisations i.e. the National Institute for Fisheries and Nautical Engineering [NIFNE] and Coastal Resources Management Project [CRMP], who both agreed to provide support for the divers. Four dive volunteers i.e. Mike Dalton [team leader], Robin Killner, Paul Keeley and Jeremy Dalton arrived at Tangalle on 13th August to see what could be done.
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