The Mercy Corps Blog
A daily look into the work, thoughts and ideas of our team around the world.
Blog Post Posted June 16, 2009, 8:44 am by Paul Armour
Providing clean water to Sri Lanka's displaced
An armed Sri Lankan policeman stands guard behind Tamil families during U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's tour of the refugee camp called Manik Farm on the outskirts of the northern Sri Lankan town of Vavuniya in May 2009. Photo: Reuters/Louis Charbonneau, courtesy www.alertnet.org
Hundreds of thousands of Sri Lankans are still living in densely populated camps following last month's end to the island's 26-year civil war.
Conditions in the camps are improving, but there's still not enough clean water and safe sanitation, according to the UN.
Mercy Corps is helping to fill these gaps by installing water-filtration systems — together with our local partner, ISB Services Limited — that will meet the daily drinking-water needs of 40,000 camp residents. ITT Watermark supplied the units.
We're also launching an effort to spread good hygiene habits to contain diseases such as typhoid, cholera and dengue fever. The oncoming monsoon season heightens the risk of disease spreading through the camps, and children are among the most vulnerable.
Donors gave generously online to get this emergency project off the ground. But we still need your help to do more.
Additional funding would allow us to build emergency latrines to restore a sense of dignity to the lives of camp residents, and to further guard against the spread of deadly diseases.
Eventually, our focus will turn to families who'll need our help to recover what they've lost and rebuild their lives. Thank you for standing with them in this time of need.
Share this page on Twitter ›
Share this page on Facebook ›
Share this page by Email ›Sri Lanka Emergency:
How You Can Help
Donate now to provide emergency assistance to families displaced by conflict between the Sri Lankan army and the Tamil Tiger rebels
About Paul Armour
Paul Armour is Mercy Corps' country director in Sri Lanka, based in Colombo.
Related Content
On mercycorps.org
A Can-Do Spirit
Handwashing posters, new water taps, and a revamped latrine are just some of the recent changes at Nalagama Sinhala Junior School in coastal Sri Lanka.
One Table: Farming Rice, Intensively
Kanthi Weerasinghe is one of 160 farmers in the village of Yahangala East experimenting with a method of growing rice called SRI, which is short for System of Rice Intensification.
Sri Lanka's displaced grows to 265,000
In the country's north, our team is taking steps to help families uprooted to the Vavuniya district, home to the highest concentration of displacement camps.
Next Post
The Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction - Day 2
Posted June 16, 2009 11:54 am by Susan Romanski
The sun came out in Geneva this morning and 1,800 people gathered to discuss the progress we're all making on disaster risk reduction efforts around the world.
Previous Post
Peace begins with honesty
Posted June 15, 2009 4:16 pm by Roger Burks
“All war is based on deception,” said Sun Tzu. So does that mean that all peace is based on honesty?
Print
Twitter
Delicious
Facebook
Digg
Reddit
Yahoo! Buzz
Newsvine
Twitter ›
Facebook ›
Flickr ›
YouTube ›
Post new comment