KALMUNAI, 21 December 2009 (IRIN): Seven-year-old Muffla Mubarak and her friends are revelling in their new homes in the French Friendship Village in Kalmunai, a town on the east coast of Sri Lanka, 300 km from the capital Colombo.
– I am happy here. I do not want to go to the sea, she said smiling.
Muffla has little memory of the devastating tsunami that swept through her family’s village of Maradamunai five years earlier, but she knows the sea is to be feared.
Her village and two adjoining it were probably the hardest hit when the Asian tsunami struck the island nation on 26 December 2004, killing more than 220.000 people in 13 countries. As many as 8.500 of their fellow residents died that day, villagers estimate.
In Sri Lanka, some 35.000 people died, more than one million were displa-ced, over 100.000 houses were destro-yed and the post-tsunami recon-struction bill reach-ed 3,2 billion US dollar, according to official figures.
Muffla’s family is among the thousands who have received new homes, while others have moved away from the coast altogether.
To mitigate the risk of a similar disaster, Kalmunai Division authorities are enforcing a 65 meter no-build buffer zone along the coast.
– It is better that we moved away from the beach, Muffla’s aunt, Rasheena Umma, said. – If we stayed near the sea, I would never allow the children to go out, she noted.
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