COLOMBO: At least seven people have been killed and two are missing in floods and mudslides following heavy rain across Sri Lanka, the disaster management center said yesterday. A tropical cyclone east of the island did not make landfall but caused unusually heavy rain in the past two days, which triggered flash floods, the Disaster Management Center said. Five of the dead drowned in flooding while two were buried in mudslides.
Some 13 people have been injured while another 115,000 have been forced to flee flooded homes. The weather department said rains subsided by Wednesday afternoon as tropical Cyclone Mahasen moved away. It is now threatening to make landfall between Bangladesh and Myanmar, and hundreds of thousands there have been told to move to safer areas.
Sri Lanka depends on monsoon rains for irrigation and power generation, but the seasonal downpours frequently cause deaths along with damage to property.
Electricity price hike
Thousands of Sri Lankans have marched to protest increased electricity charges and are demanding an immediate rate reduction.
Opposition leaders, lawmakers, trade union activists and journalists joined the protest march along the main roads of the capital, Colombo, yesterday. Saman Rathnapriya, a protest organizer, said the government’s decision last month to raise rates has increased electricity prices from 40 to 80 percent and “has heaped an unbearable burden on the public.” President Mahinda Rajapaksa has promised relief, but opposition parties and trade unions have warned of a general strike if the increases are not withdrawn fully.
