Clearing a Beachfront Village Provides Financial, Psychological Benefits

Men and women are paid fair and equal wages for beach cleanup at Jayanagar in an SSED project funded by Mercy Corps. Photo: Jeff Greenwald/Mercy Corps

The Sri Lankan village of Jayanagar sits right at the beach. Consequently, it bore the full brunt of last December's Indian Ocean tsunami; the waves claimed 19 lives here. Those who survived fled inland as soon as they heard the screams that followed the first, and mildest, of the three waves. When the water receded, the village was destroyed.

"The beach was a mess, and there was a terrible smell," says Mrs. A. K. Kadidja, an official with Sri Lanka's Society for Socio Economic Development (SSED). "We needed to clean it up, to get the fresh air. There was a smell of death, from dead dogs and other animals, and the wells also were smelling so badly."

As we're speaking, a villager pushing a wheelbarrow dumps a load of broken cement bricks onto one of the roadside piles. He is one of 100 villagers - 10 work groups of 10 people each, men and women - clearing debris along half a kilometer of beach as part of Mercy Corps' cash-for-work program.

"We hired 100 people, based on their relationship to this village, and who had the greatest need," explains Mrs. S. Krishandi, a SSED field officer. "These people no longer have their national identity cards, which are very important - to get jobs, even to withdraw money from a bank account. This man with the wheelbarrow, Mr. J. Hamsa, was a shopkeeper on Pulmoddai Road. When the tsunami attacked, he lost his building. We are employing him for the clean-up work."

The program by SSED, funded by Mercy Corps using U.S. Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) grant monies, began on February 8. The first order of business was to clean out the destroyed homes, then break down the building materials. Some of the cinder blocks, bricks, roof tiles and window frames can be used again. The detritus will be carried away by trucks, and used to fill some of the marshlands created by the tsunami. These ponds of stagnant water have become breeding grounds for mosquitoes, an ever-present problem in Sri Lanka.

The workers are on site from 7 am until 3 pm, with two breaks for tea and an hour for lunch. They are paid 300 rupees per day, a fair wage in this developing country.

"So many organizations said they were going to come and work here, and provide cash for labor." A.M. Hassen, the third SSED field officer and a native of Jayanagar, recalls. "But only SSED and Mercy Corps actually came to help us."

The clean-up has psychological value, as well. Although the villagers may not be able to build on the sites of their former homes (a much-contested government directive states that no one can rebuild within 100 meters of the high-tide line), their new homes will overlook the impacted zone. Seeing that area returned to an attractive, debris-free condition will help assuage the trauma shared by Jayanagar's residents in the weeks following the disaster.

Mr. Allabdin, a handsome, bearded man with piercing black eyes, stands with his wife and young daughter on the bare foundation of his former home. Along with his house, the Muslim fisherman lost his boat and engine on December 26. Hopefully, these tools of his trade will be replaced. Meanwhile, the SSED/Mercy Corps cash-for-work project is seeing him through.

"Before the tsunami, I had a good life here with my family," says Allabdin. "After the disaster, it was very painful and shocking to see what our village looked like. We want to get it back to normal - and this is a good beginning."