Students link with aid groups in Sri Lanka

Students link with aid groups in Sri Lanka

by Wyatt Buchanan
San Francisco Chronicle
March 29, 2005

Now that Sri Lanka's recovery from December's catastrophic tsunami has moved into the rebuilding phase, more international assistance is needed, a panel of speakers in that island country told university students in the United States on Monday night.

Students at five U.S. universities, three in the Bay Area, held a videoconference with leaders of Sri Lankan organizations that are part of the tsunami relief effort in that country, which suffered the second highest number of casualties from the Dec. 26 tsunami. Nearly 31,000 people died in that country, and 10,000 still are missing.

"We're beginning ... the reconstruction of permanent housing, school buildings, health buildings and the like," Lionel Fernando, chairman of the disaster relief monitoring unit for the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, said during the two-hour videoconference.

There are about 450,000 people without homes, and though many have the temporary shelter of tents, those structures will not provide sufficient protection once monsoon season begins, the panelists told students.

San Francisco State University, Stanford University, UC Berkeley, Rice University in Houston and St. Mary's University in San Antonio participated in the videoconference organized by Partners for Progress, a coalition of international organizations focused on tsunami relief. The representatives of the Sri Lankan organizations were in Colombo, the nation's capital.

The nation's capacity to construct new housing complicates the matter, the panelists said, as the country builds just 5,000 houses a year. Many students sought advice on the best ways to go to Sri Lanka and help with the rebuilding.

Panelists encouraged them to contact local and international nongovernmental organizations working in south Asia and ask if they need help. Panelists also talked about the positive effects of the international humanitarian response after the tsunami: No epidemics of disease have developed, the health situation is stable, and the rebuilding of some areas may bring prosperity.

Though a tsunami warning system still is nonexistent, Monday's 8.7 earthquake was reported by the international media moments after it occurred, giving local officials more than two hours to evacuate coastal areas.

SFSU student Vish Seshadr, a 21-year-old senior studying international relations, said he had come to the videoconference because of Monday's quake.

"I wanted to see what was going on, and it looks like it's OK so far," he said. After the videoconference, Seshadr said he was motivated to volunteer his summer for the reconstruction effort.

One controversial issue in Sri Lanka discussed by the panelists was the government's order that there be no construction within 200 meters of the east coastline and 100 meters of the western coastline.

While some fishing villages were upset by the rule, many slums existed along the coastline, and relocation could provide an opportunity to break the cycle of poverty, panelists said.

Any new construction should wait for the resolution of some contentious issues, however, said panelist Lalith Wikramanayake, chairman of Environmental Foundation Ltd. Most prominent among the issues is how much input the tsunami victims have in how their new homes and villages will look and operate.

Monday's was the second of three such videoconferences. The third, a discussion with the citizens of India, will take place this morning.

E-mail Wyatt Buchanan at wbuchanan@sfchronicle.com