RELOCATION OF FLOOD VICTIMS AND PROBLEMS THE GOVT. MUST FACE

DISASTERS AND AKD'S REFORESTATION ABOVE 5000 FEET

- By M.S.M. Ayub

Plans to relocate disaster victims calls for caution

This writer has written about three massive flood disasters -- in 1989, 2016 and this year, which affected hundreds of thousands of people in the lower valley of Kelani Ganga. And he was personally a victim of two of these massive floods, the ones that devastated his area in 2016 and 2025.

When the Kelani River overflowed in 2016 after 27 years, many people, especially those lived in single-storey houses, left the area before flood water inundated their homes. Some were evacuated by fishermen who brought their boats from far away, by politicians who had hired boats along with the navy after they were trapped in the area.

Between the major floods in 2016 and 2025, the Kelani River had overflowed four times, in 2017, 2018, 2022 and 2014, but stopped short of inundating houses in the valley except for certain areas below the river bank. Each time, people in most of the single-storey houses left the area, leaving their valuables to be submerged in the possibly muddy flood water, or keeping at least some items in upper floors of neighbours' or relatives' houses in the area. They returned home after two or three days later as the river was not so cruel to them.

Elders of the area relate the stories of frequent floods they had to experience at least to knee level within their houses almost every year or two before 1989. Each time a major flood inundates the area, people have to evacuate their homes and return to clean the houses including the walls and what is left in a condition to be reused.