Army men on their way back

As normalcy inched its way through the catastrophic floods that devastated thousands of homes and claimed hundreds of innocent lives in recent times, hundreds of Army troops deployed to coordinate, assist and implement urgent rescue and relief measures began to phase out on Tuesday (17) after successfully carrying out responsibilities, entrusted to them subsequent to a request made by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe.

Troops backed by Police, Civil administrators and respective Grama Sevakas were deployed within days to help rescue/relief operations in flood-hit Ratnapura, Kalutara, Galle, Matara, Deniyaya, etc since magnitude of the calamity caused by ravaging floods demanded the immediate services of the Army and the Armed Forces.

The Army troops were basically tasked to assess the overall situation, recommend necessary rescue/relief measures, coordinate and implement contingency plans and perform follow-up measures. The Army was also assigned to provide cooked foods, dry rations, medicine and other immediate requirements as affected numbers of families were fast rising.

These Army teams attached to the Disaster Management Committee (DMC) at respective provinces and areas after taking all requirements into account directly got in touch with the National Disaster Management Committee (NDMC) functioning under the chairmanship of Minister of Power and Energy, Mr Karu Jayasuriya.

Steps were immediately adopted by these Army teams to prioritize the cleaning of drinking water wells with the support of health workers, geologists and relevant administrative authorities. 1625 wells in Ratnapura district, 4019 in Kalutara district, 2941 in Matara district, 1315 in Galle district and 252 wells in Hambantota district were adequately cleaned/ chlorinated by the teams assisted by the Army during last four weeks.

Similarly, relief food consignments from Pethiyagoda warehouse were provided security until they safely returned to Kalutara, Galle, Ratnapura and Matara destinations as needs of the displaced began to vary, depending on the nature of damages. During the period May 26-June 10, 2003, an estimated total of 123 lorries with food supplies was dispatched under Army escort to these victims in affected areas.

One of the most challenging tasks undertaken by the Army was to earmark the risky landslide areas and evacuate the settlers from those vulnerable locations, taking no chance. Equally important was the urgent requirement to reach the marooned flood victims in remote areas who remained cut off from mainland for days. The Army using its own heavy vehicles and some dinghies provided largely by the Navy hurried to salvage those hundreds of victims. Tents donated by foreign agencies were put up on priority basis by the Army in order to provide temporary shelter to these internally displaced persons (IDP) before they were evacuated for safety.

More importantly, the Army effected a programme to get down National Building construction experts and geologists through good offices of the NDMC and carried out surveys on imminent landslide- prone areas as torrential rains continued.

Normalcy has now been restored in many affected areas and civil authorities are now in full control of the relief work as bad weather conditions and tension began to die down. Several Government Agents thanked the Army for their active support and cooperation before they bade adieu.