Aid Appeal: Sri Lanka appeals for up to $2 billion in foreign flood aid

Sri Lanka appealed for foreign aid on Wednesday to recover and claimed more than 100 lives.

“ we’re looking at the maximum potential support,” the minister told reporters, adding, though, that he anticipated foreign states would foot about 75 percent of overall reconstruction prices.

He attributed wild building in low-lying areas of Colombo that was designated as stormwater collection points, as reasons for the floods which hit at about one third of the city’s residents.

Putting up of buildings and “The chief cause is the filling of marshland,” the minister said.

Karunanayake said strict building codes that were new would be introduced to prevent such land being retrieved for construction in future.

He said he was hoping for foreign assistance largely in the form of grants and loans, but also called for overseas expertise in urban planning to prevent such calamities.

Emergency assistance was sent by countries at the peak of the catastrophe, including giant neighbour India which dispatched two naval ships and an aircraft loaded with supplies.

Sri Lanka’s parliament was called back to meet later Wednesday, a week ahead of schedule, to discuss recovery in the floods that hit districts are ’sed by almost all the country.

The Disaster Management Centre (DMC) said 101 people were understood to have died in various places last week, while another 100 were still recorded as missing in the central district of Kegalle.

Sixty-six bodies have so far been recovered in Kegalle, in accordance with the DMC.

Since Cyclone Roanu moved away from Sri Lanka, killing at least 24 people there and hitting southern Bangladesh rain has still.