ASIA/SRI LANKA - More than 70,000 children affected by floods in eastern regions; fresh warning of natural disasters due to climate change

Colombo (Agenzia Fides) - Days of torrential and uninterrupted rain in the districts Ampara and Batticaloa in Sri Lanka have forced about 30,000 people to abandon their homes to escape the flood waters.
In the district of Ampara alone, more than 65,000 families and about 70,000 children have been seriously affected by the rains and about 13,000 homes are damaged or destroyed.
More than 40,000 people among those affected by floods in Batticaloa, were living in camps having been forced from their homes by increasing hostilities between the regular army troops and the Tamil Tigers (LLTE) rebels.
Save the Children organisation is providing tents, sheets, plastic plates. Other staff members are distributing packets of high energy cereal for 10,000 children in affected areas.
Schools, damaged by rains or used as temporary shelters for homeless families, are closed. The Organisation is supplying cleaning kits for affected schools to get the children back to school as soon as possible.
In Sri Lanka there is a shortage of food and clean water and children are the most at risk of falling ill because of vast amount of stagnant dirty water. In a recent report Save the Children said that in the next ten years 175 million children could be affected by natural disasters caused by climate change. (AP) (23/1/2008 Agenzia Fides; Righe:25; Parole:273)