Tuesday, 30/05/2017 16:54 (GMT+7)
At least 146 people have died while 112 people have been reported missing after severe flooding and mudslides in Sri Lanka.
Photo for illustration (Source: AFP)
Nearly 2,000 houses were damaged or destroyed. Almost half a million people have been forced from their homes and were sheltering in government buildings or with friends and relatives.
Western and southern regions of the country were swamped with two days of torrential rains and landslides.
Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne said, "We have the expertise to deal with this situation," before adding that cholera and diarrhoea had been successfully prevented in past floods.”
The government withdrew an evacuation order for thousands of residents in the southern district of Matara, as water levels subsided.
The flooding is the worst since May 2003, when 250 people were killed and 10,000 homes destroyed after a similarly powerful monsoon, an official said.
Mudslides have become common during the monsoon season in Sri Lanka, a tropical Indian Ocean island nation, as land has been heavily deforested to grow export crops such as tea and rubber. Last May, a massive landslide killed more than 100 people in central Sri Lanka./.
Compiled by BTA