Colombo – IOM's efforts to help nearly 200,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) fleeing conflict in northern Sri Lanka this week has received new backing from Japan and the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF).

Japan pledged USD 1 million in new funding and an in-kind contribution of 560 tents, 4,000 plastic sheets, 30,000 10-litre jerry cans, 10,000 sleeping mats and 1,000 mosquito nets. The UN CERF pledged an additional USD 1.25 million in funding. Other international donors funding IOM relief operations in northern Sri Lanka include the USA, the UK, the Netherlands, Australia and the European Commission Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO).

The money is paying for shelter, water and sanitation, primary health care and logistics to meet the needs of over 125,000 IDPs already in the Menik Farm displacement camp, a 45-minute drive from the town of Vavuniya.

Another influx of IDPs from the conflict zone, where fighting between the government and LTTE Tamil Tiger rebels is ongoing, is expected within days.

IOM engineers this week worked against the clock to erect another 900 tents and install water and sanitation on 100 acres of newly cleared land at the site.

Four IOM-constructed and equipped Primary Health Care Centres (PHCCs), each designed to serve 10,000 people, also became operational, with an initial focus on antenatal care. The centres will reduce pressure on the camp's over-stretched main referral clinic.

The PHCCs, which are staffed by government doctors, nurses and midwives, will also provide diagnosis, emergency care, health education and referrals for the IDPs, many of whom are sick, injured and malnourished after multiple displacements and years of poor living conditions during the war.

The 900 newly erected IOM tents are the first of a consignment of 4,000 flown in from China, now warehoused in Vavuniya, pending new arrivals in the camp.  IOM Vavuniya staff have now erected some 2,400 tents and built 1,400 emergency shelters to date.

The IOM team is also focusing on the water and sanitation needs of the vast camp, where they have constructed over 450 emergency toilets. A fleet of 15 IOM bowsers or water tankers supplies water to the IDPs, pending the arrival of piped water throughout the site.

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For more information please contact: Aurela Rincon, IOM Sri Lanka, Tel. +94 11 5325 392 (Ext. 379), E-mail: arincon@iom.int, Passanna Gunasekera, Tel. +94 11 5325 300 (Ext. 341), E-mail: pgunasekera@iom.int, or Chris Lom, Tel. +94 772300952 (mobile), E-mail: clom@iom.int