Sri Lanka floods

In December 2012, unprecedented heavy rain falls in many parts of Sri Lanka resulted in severe flooding. Houses were destroyed and belongings washed away. Drinking water wells were polluted and many people lost their livestock and subsequently their ability to earn an income.

42 people lost their lives and, one month on from the disaster, over 5,000 people were still displaced and more than 500,000 across the country were still affected. A mobile medical camp in progress in Panwila, Kandy District. (c) HelpAge Sri Lanka

Those displaced took refuge in makeshift camps in public buildings, temples and churches. Most experienced a severe lack of adequate food, clean water, medicine and sanitation facilities. The vast majority of those affected were farmers, fishermen, workers and their families.

Older people's needs

Through our sister organisation HelpAge Sri Lanka, we intervened in Matale and Kandy districts to ensure that older people displaced by the floods had suitable accommodation, access to healthcare and opportunities to earn an income.

While we provided immediate relief to those affected, we also ensured that long term provisions for accommodation and income security were included in our work. We identified three main areas of need experienced by older people:

• medical and eye care,
• financial support for livelihood activities,
• building materials to repair damaged houses.

All our work to help those affected has been done through 20 Senior Citizens Committees. By offering these committees training, their members were able to identify the older people most in need of building materials and medical care. As a result, 20 mobile medical camps were set up to provide for older people's most urgent needs.

What we have achieved

Since the devastating floods, we have:

• provided medical care and services to 4,183 affected older people through the mobile medical units,
• provided spectacles and mobility aids to 1,812 older people affected by the floods,
• provided loans of Rs. 12,000 (US$ 90) to 236 older people, approximately 10 from each committee to help them set up businesses,
• printed 5,000 hygiene and sanitation leaflets for Senior Citizens Committee members, people affected by the floods and hospitals,
• provided Rs. 25,000 (US$ 190) in building materials, including tin sheets and wood planks to each committee for them to distribute among identified older people, benefitting around 111 committee members.

This work was carried out with funding from Age International.