Construction of Permanent Housing in Vaharai
When the conflict intensified in 2006, the Vaharai DS Division, Batticaloa District was one aggressively fought-over territory. During this period of relentless fighting, over 70,000 persons were displaced. By January 2007, Vaharai DS Division was under government-control, and resettlement of the area commenced the following month.
Ninety families who were living in a tsunami relocation village called Puchchakerny were displaced by the conflict in 2006. One international NGO built these families temporary shelters after the tsunami and had started construction of approximately 33 permanent houses before the 2006 conflict displacement. By the time of the 2007 resettlement, this INGO no longer worked in this Division. A local NGO, Sewa Lanka helped families in Puchchakerny to rebuild their temporary shelters and started the construction of permanent latrines in order to replace the temporary latrines built three years earlier. In January 2008, ASB/Solidar with its implementing partner UNOPS started preparing the site for a permanent housing scheme.
Taking over a site from another organization and after a considerable period of abandonment is no easy task. The site needed to be re-surveyed, as the survey conducted by the INGO did not correlate with the more recent land site survey conducted by the Government of Sri Lanka. This survey undertaken by UNOPS verifies all the Government boundary markers and provides essential planning information, as it indicates the slope of the land for the construction of drainage, the boundaries of all the individual housing plots, the location of all common areas, roads, trees, temporary and permanent latrines, temporary shelters, and foundations from the original housing scheme.
With the survey completed, the Government of Sri Lanka Survey Department has formalized the tenancy arrangements, which have been forwarded to the capital, Colombo for the issuing of grant deeds for each of the families.
Dr. Cynthia Caron, Programme Manager for Rehabilitation, Reconstruction and Resettlement (ASB) oversees the Vaharai housing scheme and the coordination of activities between ASB/Solidar, UNOPS and Local Government Authorities. The Vaharai project team includes members from Golden Bee, the ASB Peace and Justice Programme’s Community Advice Service. To insure that families understand the future housing scheme and participate in the planning process, since February 2008, the ASB Vaharai project team has interviewed all 90 families and has learned about their displacement histories and family backgrounds. They visit Puchchakerny more than three times a week to see that people are aware of and have fenced off their plot boundaries and have consulted their astrologers about the exact orientation and location of their new home within this plot. The site has been divided into five zones with one man and one woman elected to represent their zone in the formation of a committee. Once construction begins, the committee will keep records of materials distributed to all the families and will bring to the attention of the ASB project team any problems that they are having in the construction process.
During construction, families will be paid for the days that they work on foundation digging and brick casting. The construction work in Puchchakerny will be aided by the fact that there are 14 experienced masons who live in the village.
In February, UNOPS started moving previously-purchased materials from Colombo warehouses to Vaharai. As these materials are for humanitarian assistance, IOM transports these materials free of charge.
The project is expected to be completed by the end of 2008.
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