1 Jul 2011

SRI LANKA / POST-TSUNAMI HOUSING

It’s been nearly seven years since a tsunami tore apart Sri Lanka’s coastal communities, some 400 families continue to live in refugee camps.Despite the outpouring of international support just after the tsunami, IFAD is the only international organization that continues to build houses to resettle tsunami victims. IFAD

Posted at: July 1, 2011 12:02 am

Duration: 04:17

Available in: SD

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Full script

STORY: SRI LANKA / POST-TSUNAMI HOUSING
TRT: 4:17 
SOURCE: IFAD
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / TAMIL / NATS

DATELINE: 7, 10 June 2011, AMPARA DISTRICT, EASTERN REGION, SRI LANKA

1. Wide shots, fishermen pulling net 
2. Med shot, fishes inside net
3. Wide shot, fishermen pulling net
4. Wide shot, fishermen pulling net 
5. Med shot, fisherman pulling net 
6. Tracking shot, woman carrying baby in refugee camp 
7. Med shot, women in refugee camp 
8. SOUNDBITE (Tamil) refugee man: 
"Every family affected by the tsunami should be given a house."
9. Cutaway, woman refugee
10. SOUNDBITE (Tamil) refugee elderly man: 
"They told us we would stay here just six months." 
11. Med shot, woman holding child in refugee camp 
12. Med shot, group of women in refugee camp 
13. Wide shot, refugees in front of a hut 
14. Tilt down, from roof to woman talking inside a hut 
15. Cutaway, interior of hut 
16. SOUNDBITE (Tamil) refugee woman:
"God please give me a house!"
17. Wide shot, refugees walking 
18. Wide shot, workers digging ground for IFAD housing project
19. Med shot, worker digging ground for IFAD housing project
20. Med shot, worker digging 
21. Med shot, man at work 
22. SOUNDBITE (English) Anura Herath, IFAD: 
"Seven years is a long time. To build a house, the kind of house they are getting, will take about a couple of months only, six months, eight months a the most. So it's a matter of this process dragging on for years has, I think, destroyed to a certain extent their hope."
23. Wide shot, refugees  
24. Cutaway, women 
25. Med shot, woman lighting a candle at tsunami memorial 
26. Close up, candle 
27. Close up, woman in front of tsunami memorial 
28. Wide shot, woman in front tsunami memorial 
29. Wide shot, damaged buildings on Sri Lanka east coast 
30. Med shot, damaged building on Sri Lanka east coast 
31. Wide shot, damaged building on Sri Lanka east coast 
32. SOUNDBITE (English) D. Prathapasinghe, Post Tsunami Coastal Rehabilitation and Resource Management Program:
"The people were effected, they need food, they need help to recover but you could not go with that assistance. Who's going to provide that. But southerners they didn't have that problem, they simply got everything that they wanted. Simply very short period of time they recovered. Now they are okay. You can't see any camps in what you call the southern. But  you still see camps in the eastern." 
33. Wide shot, IFAD employees visiting housing project beneficiaries 
34. Close up, brick  
35. Med shot, IFAD employees visiting house in construction 
36. Wide shot, IFAD employees discussing construction work with beneficiaries 
37. Close up, Yokaraja Ponnaiah 
38. SOUNDBITE (Tamil) Yokaraja Ponnaiah, IFAD project beneficiary: 
"We're relieved to finally have this house. It's well built. During a recent flood no water came inside".
39. Wide shot, fishermen pulling boat 
40. Med shot, fishermen pulling boat 
41. Med shot, sign, "Tsunami zone go to high ground or inland" 
42. Wide shot, tsunami early warning system 
43. Med shot, tsunami early warning system 
44. Wide shot, refugee camp  
45. Med shot, refugee 
46. Wide shot, refugees 
47. Wide shot, refugee camp

STORYLINE:

Fishermen on Sri Lanka's east coast bring in their catch.

It's nearly seven years since a tsunami destroyed coastal communities and displaced 400,000 people

And while life has returned to normal for most…some here continue to live with the aftershock.

The 32 families in this refugee camp are among 400 who are still waiting to find homes.

SOUNDBITE (Tamil) refugee man: 
"Every family affected by the tsunami should be given a house."

SOUNDBITE (Tamil) refugee old man: 
"They told us we would stay here just six months."

The next generation is being raised in structures that were supposed to be temporary. Many complain of harsh conditions.

When the sun beats down on corrugated tin roofs, this woman says the heat is unbearable.

SOUNDBITE (Tamil) refugee elderly woman:
"God please give me a house."

But today families living in the Sainthamaruthu refugee camp  have reason to be hopeful again. The United Nation's International Fund for Agricultural Development or IFAD has started work on a new housing project. All families in the camp will be offered new homes here.

SOUNDBITE (English) Anura Herath, Country Presence Officer, IFAD:
"Seven years is a long time. To build a house, the kind of house they are getting, will take about a couple of months only, six months, eight months a the most. So it's a matter of this process dragging on for years has, I think, destroyed to a certain extent their hope."

A memorial erected a few kilometres from the camp serves as a reminder of the 35,000 who died when the tsunami struck on 26 December 2004.

Sri Lanka's Southern and Eastern coasts were hit equally hard but the government says the war with Tamil terrorists, which ended in 2009, made it harder to resettle displaced people in the east.

SOUNDBITE (English) D. Prathapasinghe, Post Tsunami Coastal Rehabilitation and Resource Management Program:
"The people were affected, they need food, they need help to recover but you could not go with that assistance. Who's going to provide that?"

Today IFAD is the only international organization that continues to finance house construction for displaced families along the east coast.

With construction of his new home finally underway, 39-year-old Yokaraja Ponnaiah says his family can finally put the tsunami behind them.

SOUNDBITE (Tamil) Yokaraja Ponnaiah, IFAD project beneficiary:
"We're relieved to finally have this house. It's well built. During a recent flood no water came inside."

Many here say they are better prepared for the next tsunami-like emergency.

There are signs pointing to higher ground and an early warning alarm system.

Even so, for the families still living in the seven remaining refugee camps on Sri Lanka's east coast, the only way they will ever overcome the tsunami, they say, is when they can finally go home.