Thursday, January 20, 2011

there are victims, and then there are victims

The media has been providing plenty of coverage of the disastrous floods in Queensland, Australia, lots of news footage has been provide, ample commentary of the human cost to those flood victims.

Yet the floods in Sri Lanka? Very little reporting. The floods were a once in a century event, according to the UN Global Disaster Alert and Co-ordination System. Local newspapers reported that, during the period from 1 December to 12 January, more rain fell in Batticaloa district than it normally receives in a year.

The damage to agricultural land could leave up to 1 million people, including 400,000 children, without enough food, Save the Children said. 21% of the country's rice crop had been destroyed. 350,000 displaced people driven into temporary refugee camps are now returning home only to find that their homes, schools, crops and livelihoods have been wiped out by the rains.

"The average ten-year-old in eastern Sri Lanka has lived through conflict, the tsunami and now risks facing a food crisis in the coming weeks caused by these floods," Gareth Owen, Save the Children's emergencies director, said. "It is absolutely essential that the world does not wait until these children are starving to act. Many families in affected areas are facing a nightmare scenario in which both their food source and their livelihoods have been washed away by the rains. They need help to survive until the next harvest. It may not have been possible to prevent the floods, but we can avoid a food crisis if help is given to families now."

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