Sri Lanka's tsunami-hit south on road to recovery

SEENIGAMA, Sri Lanka, Dec 23 (Reuters) Sitting on the porch of her new donated home on Sri Lanka's tsunami-battered south coast, Girli Mangalika has put the disaster behind her and is focusing on starting a new business.

She still shudders while recalling how she fled her old home as giant waves razed her village in December 2004, killing 125 people, and ran to seek refuge at a Buddhist temple a few hundred metres uphill.

Her hamlet, 60 miles south of Colombo, has since been relocated slightly inland, and residents once consumed by the apocalyptic disaster are looking to the future.

''We are happy now,'' the 48-year-old former coral miner said, surveying the lush lawn in front of her new house built by a local aid group. It is a far cry from the humble shelter she lived in before the disaster.

''My son is now self-employed as a diver, catching ornamental fish,'' she added. ''And I've applied for a loan and am looking forward to starting a cloth bag-making business with a few women from my village.'' The newly constructed village, paid for by a flush of international grants and donations, includes a library, community centre and maternity clinic.

The Sri Lankan government says that 98 per cent of the tsunami reconstruction in the country's south is complete, amounting to nearly 25,000 houses. However the hardest hit east coast, where two-thirds of those affected lived, is lagging.

SKEWED DEVELOPMENT Less than half of the 60,000 houses planned for the east have been completed, while in the Tamil Tiger-held north -- cut off from the rest of the island amid renewed civil war -- less than 30 per cent of houses for tsunami-displaced are finished.

The empty shells of destroyed buildings still litter much of the island's affected coastline and have yet to be cleared.

Aid agencies flocked to the south coast because it was more easily accessible and also the site where 1,270 people died when their passenger train was swept off its tracks by giant tsunami waves.

''Instead of waiting for a conducive time to travel to the northeast, most NGOs buckled down and concentrated on reconstruction projects in the south,'' said Rachel Perera, Director of Donor Coordination for Sri Lanka's Reconstruction and Development Agency in Colombo.

''The area also has some lovely beaches, which may have been a contributing factor to NGOs going there,'' she added. The government has accused many aid groups of failing to honour commitments and using donor money to buy 4x4 SUVs.

The newly-refurbished Seenigama Central School is a telling example of how the tsunami sucked in around 3 billion dollars in pledged aid for Sri Lanka and paved the way for a fresh start on infrastructure long-neglected by successive governments focused on fighting the Tamil Tigers.

A manicured playground lined with coconut trees has been financed by the Surrey County Cricket Club in Britain, and adjoining it, a swimming pool is being dug, a gift from Bryan Adams, the Canadian pop icon.

The school buildings that were badly damaged by the ocean, have been upgraded, given a fresh coat of paint, and new wings have been built.

''Would Surrey have given us this without the tsunami? Not a chance,'' says Kushil Gunasekera, who spearheaded the Seenigama rehabilitation project.

NEW LIVELIHOODS The government says 75 per cent of 150,000 people whose livelihoods were disrupted by the tsunami are back to work, often at new jobs. But not all are happy with the change.

Before the tsunami hit, hundreds of residents on the south coast worked as coral miners, illegally harvesting the sea for material traditionally used to build houses in the area.

Analysts say the systematic erosion of the coral reefs exposed the coast to the full fury of the tsunami, which killed 35,000 people along Sri Lanka's shores and around 230,000 in Asia overall.

''There was hardly any breakwater or resistance when the waves came in,'' said Gunasekera. ''Keeping people away from this business is critical.'' To give residents an alternative, legal way to make a living, a factory has been set up, where brush handles are carved out of wood blocks and coconut husks are spun into coir rope. But there have been mixed results.

''I understand the damage we did, but I needed to feed my family,'' said Kumareswari Padmawathi, a former coral harvester, who now earns 1.50 dollars a day at the coir factory.

''I make a lot less working here. I've had to cut back on buying new clothes and paying for my children's after-school classes. Life is difficult.'' Factory manager AK Gamini says that while he wants to expand production, the workers are unmotivated by their labour and sometimes just don't show.

Factory work may be safe, but most former fishermen making brush handles pine for work in the water. While aid groups handed out thousands of fishing boats and engines, many fishermen missed out on the bonanza.

''There's no space for me on the boats at the moment, and my family prefers me working here,'' said D Ranthilake, whose sister died during the tsunami. ''But I don't like being stuck in a factory. I'm a fisherman, I'm used to being at sea.'' REUTERS PB BD1008