Mine threats after flood waters recede in Sri Lanka

Mine threats after flood waters recede in Sri Lanka

2011-01-17 03:08:35 GMT+7 (ICT)

COLOMBO (BNO NEWS) - Sri Lanka's military and the United Nations on Sunday warned of the threat posed by unexploded mines which are surfacing now flood waters are receding, the Sunday Times reported.

"There is every possibility of mines surfacing as a result of flood waters," military spokesperson Udaya Madawala told the Sri Lankan newspaper. The mines are remnants of the civil war between government troops and Tamil rebels that ended in May 2009.

The United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs said the flood waters could unearth mines, ERWs and explosives, and carry them to areas thought to be safe.

In the three eastern province districts of Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Ampara, the worst-hit by the floods, almost 90 percent of the mines had been removed. However, the spread of flood waters in the districts of Vavuniya and Mullaitivu could become a threat, Madawala added.

Approximately one million people were affected by floods, which has killed at least 37 people so far. The floods have also caused major damage to roads, irrigation tanks, and paddy land, raising fear of a severe shortage of crops. The damage to infrastructure facilities was the worst since the 2004 tsunami.

Disaster Management Minister Mahinda Amaraweera said the Government would launch a reconstruction program of roads, rail tracks, irrigation tanks and canals, and buildings damaged by the floods, the Sunday Times reported.

The loss is estimated at about Rs. 40 billion ($361 million), Amaraweera said.

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