The Field and the Flood

When international development professionals say they are working "in the field" it means they leave the home office behind and go to a place where the people their programs serve actually live.  It's easy to feel disconnected sitting in an air conditioned country headquarters, and I've been appreciative in the past couple weeks to make two field visits - one to a flood emergency in the southern district of Kalutara, and another to conduct interviews for a project proposal in the eastern district of Batticaloa. I'll speak about Kalutara today, as it really deserves its own post.

Kalutara is only about an hour south of Colombo, and was hit badly on June 1 by monsoon rains that came after a long drought - causing 26 deaths and over 17,000 Sri Lankans to be displaced from their homes. It's not an emergency that got much international coverage, but a devastating one all the same. Our job was to conduct a rapid needs assessment of the situation to have the knowledge to target our response. Save the Children not only provides humanitarian relief (food, tarps, water, etc.) during such emergencies, but also is looked upon to lead the education response for children. Schools are often closed for extended periods of time, meaning that children miss instruction and tests. In this disaster, the Ministry of Education asked us to provide kits to replace lost school materials.

Along with two colleagues I traveled to the district and visited local government offices overseeing the distribution of dry goods, a shelter in a Buddhist temple for displaced families, and a town that had been separated by a flooded rice paddy. We saw children, dogs, and adults taking small boats across the paddy, and we took a ride as well to survey the extent of the flooding. We interacted with numerous people who spoke of the hardships they are currently facing: flooded wells that mean they do not have clean drinking water, lost crops that will yield extended economic shocks to their families, and destroyed possessions.

Flood waters cover ride paddies, ruining this year's harvest

A woman shows us the water line on her home

Children paddle onto the once-paddy, their town separated by the floodwater

People gather outside a local shelter for displaced families, their homes still at risk for landslide

Most saddening was visiting a community on a hillside that is at constant risk for landslides when it rains. This disaster took the lives of two small children, who were trapped in a house that was destroyed when the landslide came. Even the local elementary school is not safe. A young man at the shelter told us that families are nervous for their children's safety every time it rains even a bit.  The school is mostly attended by poorer families, as richer families are able to send their children elsewhere. The school has been in its current spot for 78 years, and the village's campaign to have the school moved has thus far not been successful.