Colombo, May 25: Sri Lanka has sought intertiol assistance in rebuilding the island tion after devastating floods and landslides killed at least 101 people and displaced over 200,000 last week, Fince Minister Ravi Karuyake said on Wednesday.
Karuyake said the country has received “tremendous” intertiol support and the government now hopes to receive monetary assistance in terms of grants and commercial loans, Xinhua news agency reported.
The damage incurred from the floods and landslides value up to $2 billion (147.37 billion Sri Lankan rupees), he said.
According to a prelimiry assessment, so far 101 people were killed in days of heavy rains last week while 620,000 were affected across the island.
However, rescue teams said the numbers were much higher. The Sri Lanka government, through the 2016 budget, has allocated Rs.10 billion for damage through tural disasters and those funds were being utilised to begin resettling families whose houses were partly destroyed, the minister said.
“There is a lot that needs to be done and we want to get the country back to normal as soon as possible. The government is putting in all its efforts to provide relief to the affected people,” Karuyake said. (IANS)