US embassy cable - 05COLOMBO1218

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 COLOMBO 001218 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR EB A/S ANTHONY WAYNE; SA/INS FOR J. BRENNIG, N. 
DEAN; PLEASE PASS TO TSUNAMI RECONSTRUCTION TASK FORCE; 
TREASURY FOR C. CARNES; MCC FOR D.NASSIRY 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EAID, ECON, PGOV, CE, MV, Maldives, Tsunami 
SUBJECT: SRI LANKAN POST-TSUNAMI RECONSTRUCTION UPDATE (JULY 
13, 2005) 
 
1.  (U) This cable provides information for the July 13, 
2005 post-Tsunami IAWG meeting. 
 
Maldives Update 
--------------- 
2.  (SBU) The Government of Maldives (GORM) informed Econoff 
that Riluwan Shareef, Executive Director of the Ministry of 
Finance, met with the Ministry of Planning on July 12 and 
they have identified four harbors that they plan to rebuild 
with USG assistance.  In addition, the Planning Ministry has 
given a July 17 deadline to the line ministries for 
submitting details on these projects.  Fathmath Nuzuha, 
Assistant Undersecretary of External Resources Management at 
the Ministry of Finance and Treasury promised that GORM 
would forward all details at that time.  Econoff has 
requested that the GORM provide a list of programs detailing 
purpose, justification, budgets and benchmarks for what GORM 
hopes to accomplish with USG assistance. 
 
3.  (U) Embassy is analyzing the draft of the Maldives 
bilateral agreement sent on July 12 from Washington.  We 
envision three parts in the monitoring process.  Embassy 
personnel could conduct periodic site inspections to assure 
that progress is being made.  However, audits (financial and 
technical) will require outside personnel.  Embassy is still 
assessing what its administrative costs will be in 
monitoring the programs.  Embassy would appreciate 
clarification on the following: 
 
--What auditing procedures will be required? For example, do 
we need to do a pre-implementation audit? 
 
--When is the deadline for the expenditure of these funds? 
 
--Could Embassy Colombo hire a local or international 
contractors to audit national fund activities, rather than 
using auditors from Washington? 
 
--What are the monitoring obligations of Embassy Colombo, 
especially pertaining to the technical aspects of the 
projects?  For example, could we hire a local engineer to 
ensure that the projects implemented by the Maldives meet 
technical requirements? 
 
--However these tasks are accomplished, they will require 
funding.  We assume these funds will come out of the tsunami 
appropriation, but need to know how to describe that in the 
agreement and how funds for administrative expenses will 
actually be handled.  We understand that USAID does this 
routinely in its bilateral agreements. 
 
Sri Lanka: Housing Update 
------------------------- 
4.  (SBU) During the July 7 biweekly TAFREN/Limited Donor 
meeting, Tiluk Ranaviraja, the head of TAFOR (Task Force for 
Relief), stated that 41,009 transitional units have been 
completed and affirmed that it had the capacity to build up 
to a total of 50,000 units without difficulty.  However, 
Ranaviraja acknowledged that 15-20% of the temporary housing 
is not up to Government of Sri Lanka (GSL) standards and 
will need to be upgraded.  The representative from the Asian 
Development Bank (ADB) argued that they estimate 30-40% of 
the housing is substandard.  All of the major donors such as 
the ADB, the World Bank and the United Nations Development 
Programme (UNDP) also raised concerns that the government 
was not taking enough initiative to solve remaining problems 
including upgrading housing and repairing auxiliary services 
such as sanitation and water.  There are additional worries 
that there will be an even greater demand for temporary 
housing when people currently living with host families 
decide that they also want housing.  Regardless, Ranaviraja 
confirmed that he was going to report that he has fulfilled 
his job as head of the transitional housing task force, but 
stated that he would recommend that the government continue 
to address the lingering problems. 
 
5. (SBU) USAID Mission Director Carol Becker confirms that 
most families needing transitional housing have now received 
it, but that the transitional housing phase of 
reconstruction cannot be considered completely over given 
quality issues.  USAID teams continue to regularly monitor 
the quality of transitional housing completed with USAID 
funds. 
 
Uninhabited Tsunami Tents 
------------------------- 
6.  (SBU) Recently, media reports have claimed that people 
are still living in tents rather than government and NGO 
provided temporary housing.  Ranaviraja investigated these 
charges and maintains that the media was using old photos, 
and people who are still living in tents are there for 
political purposes.  The ADB representative also 
investigated these charges and confirmed that anyone who 
wants temporary housing has it at this point.  Carol Becker 
also stated that some people are still staying in the tents 
because they believe that this will ensure that they receive 
aid in the future. 
 
Permanent Housing 
----------------- 
7.  (SBU) According to the GSL, 212 MOUS have been signed 
with donors to build 33,000 permanent housing units.  TAFREN 
claims that construction work has already started on 5,000 
units and 15,094 households have received their first 
installment of Rs 50,000 ($500) to rebuild damaged houses 
outside the buffer zone.  Participants at the July 7 
TAFREN/Limited Donors meeting largely agreed that the 
success or failure of the permanent housing program would 
largely determine how the people view the whole Tsunami 
effort.  A possible future problem is that some NGOs that 
promised to build houses have now disappeared and may no 
longer exist.  Jeevan Thiagarajah of the Consortium of 
Humanitarian Agencies (CHA) argued that the government must 
investigate the intentions of numerous NGOs that have yet to 
follow through with housing. 
 
Eminent Domain 
--------------- 
8.  (SBU) Obtaining land through eminent domain is fast 
becoming a major bottleneck in the Tsunami Reconstruction 
efforts.  The 100m/200m buffer zone restriction has created 
demand for land for the rebuilding effort.  NGOs complain 
that they cannot build houses until the government purchases 
new land or finds a way to distribute public lands.  Some 
NGOs have been asking the government for months to obtain 
this land for them, but the GSL has failed to do so in a 
timely manner. 
 
The New Vertical Buffer Zone 
---------------------------- 
9. (SBU) According to local press reports, the Director of 
the Coast Conservation Department Mr. R.A.D.B. Samaranayake 
has said that the government has decided to permit 
rebuilding within the 100/200 meter buffer zone in areas 
located 3 meters above sea level in tsunami affected areas. 
This would represent an easing of the GSL's earlier decision 
to strictly prohibit new construction within 100 meters of 
the coastline.  There is currently no information available 
regarding how many people this ruling will affect since it 
is not known how much of the affected area is 3 meters above 
sea level.  There has not yet been any official announcement 
on modifications to the buffer zone. 
 
FEMA to the Rescue 
------------------ 
10.  (U) Embassy Colombo delighted to hear that FEMA is able 
to make available Ms. Chris Jonientz-Trisler. We will now 
work to put together the team from USGS, OFDA and FEMA to 
allow us to have input into the GSL deliberations on the 
buffer zone. 
 
Debt Relief 
----------- 
11. (U) Embassy received the draft of the bilateral 
agreement for debt relief in Sri Lanka.  Econoff is 
forwarding the bilateral agreement to Dr. Jayatissa, 
Assistant Governor of the Central Bank and Mr. Jayamaha, 
Deputy Director General, External Resources of the Sri 
Lankan delegation for their review. 
 
Supplemental Spending Measure and Tsunami Relief 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
12. (SBU) We hope to sign the bilateral agreement (SOAG) 
with the GSL this week, but are still awaiting resolution 
within AID Washington of how to handle OTI funds. As far as 
we can understand, this is largely an accounting issue and 
should be able to be resolved quickly. 
 
13. (SBU) Comment: For the most part, Sri Lanka's temporary 
housing phase of the Tsunami rebuilding effort is complete. 
However, the transition from temporary housing to permanent 
housing is going to be very difficult for the GSL.  It will 
take close coordination between ministries within the 
government and with the international community to satisfy 
all stakeholders.  Reconstruction is now entering a critical 
juncture that will determine the political success of this 
endeavor.  With regard to the Maldives, it is likely that 
fatigue and human resource constraints have caused the 
delayed response from the GORM.  The Ambassador will be 
visiting the Maldives next week and will discuss Tsunami 
rebuilding issues. 
 
LUNSTEAD