Aftermath

Sri Lanka’s tsunami victims grapple with alcoholism, depression and insecurity as rehabilitation slows down with time.





Sri Lanka’s tsunami victims grapple with alcoholism, depression and insecurity as rehabilitation slows down with time. People’s consultations targeting tsunami survivors, by the UNDP, the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka and the University of Colombo show the strain of tsunami recovery in Sri Lanka.

Tsunami victims say alcohol consumption among men and teenage boys have increased after the tsunami.

Parents say young children complain of sleeplessness and suffer common colds and fever far more frequently than they did before the tsunami.

Schools in affected districts show large numbers of absenteeism after the tsunami and many districts also record a high number of dropouts since the tsunami.

Men, that lost their wives to the tsunami, talk of loneliness and depression and say they find it difficult to look after young children while juggling a livelihood.

Meanwhile women feel left out of the recovery process because men, as heads of households and bank account hol