Cyclone-hit Sri Lanka's recovery fund exceeds USD 13.8 million: Official

Colombo, Dec 19 (PTI) Cyclone-hit Sri Lanka's rebuilding fund has exceeded USD 13.8 million through contributions, a top finance ministry official said on Friday.

Contributions to the 'Rebuild Sri Lanka Fund' have come from well-wishers, supporters, local entrepreneurs, organisations, businesses, overseas Sri Lankans, other organisations assisting the island nation and even some foreign diplomats stationed in the capital.

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake constituted the Fund in the immediate aftermath of the devastation caused by Cyclone Ditwah last month.

“Based on the update that has been received from the Treasury Operations department of the Ministry of Finance, we are happy to share that as of today, the total amount received is LKR 4,286 million,” Treasury Secretary Harshana Suriyapperuma said.

The amount, which equals USD 13.86 million, comprises deposits of LKR 4,263 million direct deposits into the bank accounts as well as LKR 23 million received in foreign currencies, signifying a total of over LKR 4.2 billion.

The amount received in foreign currencies itself had exceeded USD 6 million, he added.

The cost of recovery is expected to be around USD 6-7 billion, according to the government’s preliminary estimates.

The Sri Lankan parliament also gave its nod to the LKR 500 billion supplementary estimate on Friday to cover the recovery expenditure, according to a statement on the Parliament website.

Suriyapperuma said the government was aware of the moves by multilateral agencies such as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Asian Development Bank and many other organisations to grant assistance to Sri Lanka for its rebuilding efforts.

The money received through the bank accounts collected through North America was ranked at the highest position, followed by donations and contributions received from Australia, China, and the UK, Suriyapperuma said.

The Colombo-based foreign diplomats made a collective personal contribution of LKR 3.6 million to support the country’s disaster relief efforts. The donation from ambassadors of the Maldives, Italy, Korea, Switzerland, Palestine, Oman and Indonesia was handed over to Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath on December 11, local media reported.

Widespread flooding, landslides and severe infrastructure collapse across the island nation severely strained the country's disaster-response capacity in the wake of Cyclone Ditwah.

As of Wednesday, as many as 643 people had died and 183 were still missing since November 16 as landslides, floods and rainfall caused widespread destruction, data from the Disaster Management Centre (DMC) in Colombo showed.

While 6,228 houses were fully damaged, 1,01,055 houses were damaged partially, the DMC said, adding, a total of 22,096 families and 66,132 people were still residing at 723 shelters. PTI CORR GRS NPK NPK