Eastern Province / Sri Lanka
Water, sanitation and hygiene promotion for conflict-affected IDP returnees and host communities in Eastern Sri Lanka
- For schools, child-friendly water and sanitation facilities are built: they are for example smaller and coloured.
Sri Lanka is considered a middle income country with comparatively high social indicators. However, important disparities exist between the east and the north and the rest of the country. This is largely due to almost three decades of internal conflict.
In mid-2006 military offensives initiated in the Eastern Province displaced more than 170,000 people who previously lived in areas controlled by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). 44,000 families were displaced from Batticaloa, and a further 7,500 families from Trincomalee.
The displaced persons were temporarily settled into camps and welfare centres or stayed with host families. By the third quarter of 2007 the entire Eastern Province was brought under the full control of the Government and a resettlement process was initiated in Batticaloa and Trincomalee districts to allow internally displaced persons (IDPs) to return to their villages. Up to September 2008, nearly 140,000 IDPs had been resettled in their places of origin in the districts of Batticaloa and Trincomalee and plans are underway to resettle the remaining IDPs in their villages of origin.
The drawn out and devastating armed conflict has particularly affected Batticaloa and Trincomalee districts. This includes:
1. The acute lack of sufficient safe and adequate water is a major challenge. Related facilities need to be rehabilitated or repaired in the targeted areas.
2. Maternal and child health have been neglected for two decades, resulting in a lack of health infrastructures and of adequate medical equipment.
3. School infrastructures and the overall education environment have suffered serious damage and school age children lack proper access to education facilities and supplies. Together this results in high drop-out rates.
4. Displacements and pervasive indiscriminate violence, including claymore attacks, landmines and unexploded ordnances, aerial bombings and disappearances, have all negatively impacted the psychological wellbeing of populations, particularly of children. Children living in conflict affected areas are in need of specific care and psychosocial support.
Malteser International will build on its vast experience in the area of assistance to IDPs and the resettlement of returnees to scale up its interventions. The teams will support the construction of physical infrastructure facilities in selected resettlement areas and vulnerable host communities. In order to maximise the outcome of the interventions, Malteser International will also become active in the fields of water, sanitation and hygiene.
Returnees and host communities live in an enhanced protective environment and participate in ensuring safe drinking water and improved sanitation, in selected geographic areas within the districts of Trincomalee and Batticaloa. Malteser International will focus its integrated interventions in three Divisional Secretary (DS) divisions in Batticaloa district and two DS divisions in Trincomalee district, which have suffered significant devastation from the conflict. The relief service will thus provide an integrated response to the reintegration needs in terms of water and sanitation for about 23,000 families and 69,000 children. To ensure that all interventions are community driven, Malteser International has proven skills in community-based approaches and community mobilisation as well as many years of experience in the selected areas.
- Construction/repair of 800 household latrines in Trincomalee district and 200 household latrines in Batticaloa district
- Construction/repair of 200 household dug wells in Batticaloa district and 50 household dug wells in Trincomalee district
- Construction/repair of child-friendly water and sanitation facilities in 22 schools in Trincomalee district and 20 schools in Batticaloa district including hygiene education.
- Construction/repair of 20 common water supply points (protected dug wells/tube wells) in Trincomalee district and construction/repair of 370 water supply points (protected dug wells/tube wells) in Batticaloa district in resettlement areas with community participation
- Drilling of 60 deep bore holes and provision of hand pumps in Batticaloa district in areas of high water scarcity as well as establishment of sustainable community-based operation and management systems
- Construction of 7 small-scale rural water supply schemes in Batticaloa district and one in Trincomalee district
- Construction of water and sanitation facilities in 10 rural health facilities in Batticaloa district and 6 rural health facilities in Trincomalee district
- Mobilisation of 2,800 resettled families in Batticaloa district and 1,000 resettled families in Trincomalee district for participatory hygiene promotion on good hygiene behaviour
- Baseline and follow-up survey on knowledge and practices (KAP) and socio-economic mapping in focus areas of Batticaloa and Trincomalee districts
- Construction of a sewerage treatment facility in Mutur division of Trincomalee district
- Mobilisation of communities and community-based organisations through 90 community mobilisation sessions in Batticaloa and 36 more in Trincomalee
- provision
of 10 rural health facilities in Batticaloa district and 6 rural health
facilities in Trincomalee district, in the resettlement areas, with
improved access to safe drinking water, and improved sanitation to cover
10,000 patients, most of them women and children
The reconstruction process involves full participation and ownership of the community, including families and children, schools and other institutions present in the community. By involving the community right from the beginning of the planning stage, the reconstruction will be based on real needs, and the accompanying sense of ownership will contribute to the maintenance of the facilities.
| Project data | |
| Duration: | since December 2009 |
| Financing: | UNICEF, Malteser International, private donations |
| Partner: | own implementation |
| Contact | |
| Malteser: | Daniel Bergfeld |
| info(at)malteser-international.org |
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In Sri Lanka, Malteser International constructs wells and thus provides the access to clean drinking water. Photo: Carmen Wolf
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