I appreciate if you publish this article or send it to appropriate govt./political individuals who can take some action on this important issue:

I am writing this as a Sri Lankan and a chartered civil engineer who undertook leadership tasks of building homes and infrastructure while working at State Engineering Corp and NWS&DP for over 6 years. I currently work in the US after earning my Ph.D.

I lost my mother, a sister and many relatives in Peraliya, the village that was given world a view due to train that swept away with killing over 1000 passengers. Village lost few hundred people and over 90% of the homes.

The government efforts to build houses at least with 500 sq.ft. floor area is commendable. Also, I heard from some families in affected areas that the govt. has already started building on the original foundations of broken houses giving the families same size houses. This is important because these families have to maintain their social status and it is important to consider everyone who lost homes were not poor. The affected people belong to poor-upper middle class status prior to tsunami.

I am concerned that some NGO's such as Habitat for Humanity is trying to raise the number of houses they built by constructing shanties for Rs. 50,000 each. Every Sri Lankan knows that for Rs. 50,000 what you can expect and I think this kind of activities should be stopped by the government. When the govt. is preparing to build a decent home why we allow this kind of organizations to build shanties and bring the families to a status we Sri Lankans do not want to see. We need progress and not shanties for them to claim in their advertisement campaigns that they build thousands of homes.

I would like this message to be heard by the Sri Lankan govt. as well as people of  Sri Lanka and reject their backward attitudes toward our country.    

Sincerely,
Mangala Jayasuriya, Ph.D.
email: mjaya12@yahoo.com