COI Report March 2012 - UK Border Agency - Home Office

7 MARCH 2012 SRI LANKA
water supply. We also spoke to construction workers who were building the houses and noted
that none of them had been recruited from within the district.
The DS told us their plans to develop the district, but said they required funding to complete
much of the work. They told us that one of their main concerns was youth unemployment,
saying that many had left school during a time when infrastructures in all sectors of industry had
been destroyed and there were little or no employment opportunities. The list of priorities for the
district mainly involved the development of agriculture and fishing industries; de-silting, cleaning
lagoons, re-planting coastal areas/mangroves, building sea walls and beacons, building storage
facilities, replacing pumps to assist irrigation and clearing jungle, which would require further
demining. We were told of a specific project where there was a huge tank (reservoir) that
supplied water to 7,000 families by way of 37 lift pumps. Only 3 of these were currently working,
7 could be repaired, but the remainder would have to be replaced at a cost of around Rs
1,000,000 each (£5,600). Fishing was the main livelihood for 3,500 families within the district,
but there were only 1,500 boats and many were in need of repair. On a 60 km coastline there
was not one boat repair business. The government had provided a newly constructed building
for this, but had no funds to supply tools and training.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) provided the following statistics for
Mullaitivu:
Resettlement – As at 29 July 2011 29,265 families had been resettled in Mullaitivu since the
end of the conflict, totalling 85,850 individuals. Just over half of these had been resettled
following periods of time staying with friends and relatives.
Housing – In May 2011 the requirement needs for the number of new or repaired permanent
houses stood at 22,396. Only 1,017 had been completed although 7,727 were in progress.
Education – There are 109 schools in Mullaitivu District, of which 78 were open and functioning.
The biggest challenges apart from needing furniture, renovation of buildings, plus water and
sanitation facilities, were a shortage of teachers. Transport to get teachers to and from the
school had been an issue but many teachers now remained in Mullaitivu during the week,
returning to homes outside of the district at weekends.
Health – The health sector in Mullaitivu is also facing staff shortages, in particular doctors.
There is currently a lack of health infrastructure facilities and few facilities functioning. The
requirement for the district is 59 clinics, 59 healthcare centres and 16 hospitals. Currently there
are no clinics, 2 healthcare centres and 5 hospitals completed and functioning. A further 4
clinics, 7 healthcare centre and 3 hospitals are currently being built/renovated.
Agriculture – UNDP had supported agricultural recovery in several selected Grama Niladhari
divisions. The Department of Agriculture with the support of the Food & Agricultural organisation
had distributed 10,580 packages of seed paddy, 14,150 farming packages and 7,000 home
garden kits in Mullaitivu.
Fishing – In Mullaitivu District 3,875 families are reliant on fishing to support their livelihoods.
There are currently 14 functioning fishing co-operatives operating 344 glass fibre boats and 75
traditional craft. Just as in Kilinochchi, NGOs distributed only a few boats and little equipment in
Mullaitivu, the reason being that fishing assistance is 10 times greater than agricultural support.
There remains a lack of infrastructure like storage rooms, cold storage, ice plants and
refrigerated trucks.
Livelihood Assistance – As at April 2011, 18,491 families in Mullaitivu had not received any
livelihood assistance from the government.
We attended a meeting in the Grama Sevaka‘s office at Udaiyarkaddu South. The office was in
the centre of the town and still bore the bullet marks from the battle that had raged through the
The main text of this COI Report contains the most up to date publicly available information as at 3 February 2012.
Further brief information on recent events and reports has been provided in the Latest News section
to 2 March 2012.
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