Sri Lanka estimates flood damage at 400 million euros

The damage from monsoon flooding in Sri Lanka over the last six weeks is estimated at 400 million euros, Disaster Management Minister Mahinda Amaraweera said Sunday. A UN appeal for 38 million euros has received a poor response.

Reuters

The government will spend 33 billion rupees (221 million euros) on urgent repairs to 50,000 homes damaged by the flooding, Amaraweera said, but total damage is estimated to be twice as much.

"The rice crop damage alone is about 13 billion rupees (9.5 million euros)," he told the AFP news agency.

The unusually heavy monsoon rains left at least 64 people dead and drove more than one million people out of their homes.

Most of them have returned as rains subsided, but 130,000 people still remain in state-run welfare camps, the disaster management centre said Sunday.

The United Nations has received only about 20 per cent of the cash it appealed for to address immediate needs.

It plans a fresh appeal after the second wave of floods hit the northern, central and eastern parts of the island