June 2015, Kilinochchi, Sri Lanka: Three decades of conflict caused significant negative impacts to the environment in Sri Lanka’s Northern Province. With the end of the conflict in 2009, reconstruction efforts in the North have further exacerbated the pressures on the environment leading to the rapid depletion of forest cover. With the aim of ...

Community centres are an important element of village life in Sri Lanka. They are used for events, village level administration, to disseminate public information and to conduct public meetings and regular health clinics for residents. The lack of such an indoor space in a village can cause serious inconveniences to communities.  In 2014, with funding ...

Well maintained internal gravel roads are vital for the efficient functioning of village life as they are used regularly by residents to travel to workplaces, agricultural lands and children’s schools as well as to access towns and marketplaces. Badly maintained roads can severely inconvenience people, particularly during the monsoon rains. To improve accessibility in Eralakulam ...

The Indian Housing Project (IHP) is a housing reconstruction project funded by the Government of India and implemented through a Memorandum of Understanding with the Government of Sri Lanka. UN-Habitat is implementing this project in the Northern districts of Killinochchi, Mullaitivu and Jaffna. Through a homeowner driven process, UN-Habitat will support 18,000 families to construct ...

Mr.Vellupillai Sivarasa is a farmer and toddy tapper from Jaffna district. In February 2014, he moved into his new house, constructed with funding from the Indian Housing Project. Using the grant of LKR. 550,000 provided by the Government of India, Sivarasa managed to complete the house construction within seven months. His family is now enjoying ...

Well maintained internal access roads are vital for the smooth functioning of villages in rural Sri Lanka. Internal roads are used daily by residents to travel to their workplaces, agricultural lands and children’s schools as well as to access towns and marketplaces to buy and sell produce. When internal roads are in a state of ...

Water is a precious resource in Sri Lanka’s dry zone. As most rural areas are not linked to pipe borne water, families usually obtain water from available sources including wells, rivers and irrigation tanks. The village of Weligahakandiya in Batticaloa district is no exception. The community in this conflict affected village depend mainly on small ...

The Project for Rehabilitation of Community Infrastructure, Improvement of Livelihoods and Empowerment of Women in the Northern and Eastern Provinces (RCI) is a community infrastructure development project, contributing towards the sustainable rehabilitation and reconstruction of the conflict affected Northern and Eastern Provinces. Funded by the Government of Japan and implemented by UN-Habitat, it is assisting ...

The Government of Japan is providing funding of US$ 4,201,541 (Japanese Yen 507,000,000) through the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) for the sustainable resettlement of conflict affected people through community-driven improvement of the learning environment in Mannar District. Over the next 30 months, this project will support fifteen schools to construct and improve infrastructure ...

20th February 2015, Colombo: Hon. Sajith Premadasa, the Minister of Housing and Samurdhi met with a delegation of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) officials lead by Mr. Tim McNair, Chief Technical Advisor, at the Ministry premises in Sethsiripaya, Battaramulla recently. The officials discussed the status of the housing sector, planned interventions and opportunities ...

19 February 2015, Colombo, Sri Lanka: The Government of India in June 2010 announced that it would construct 50,000 houses as part of its post-conflict rehabilitation efforts. The Project is being implemented as full grant assistance amounting to USD 250 million (approximately SLR 30 billion) from the Government of India, making it one of the ...

February 2015, Mannar, Sri Lanka. The “Improving Living Conditions in Returnee Areas of Sri Lanka through Housing” project is a housing recovery initiative supporting returning Internally Displaced Persons (IDP’s) in the North and East of Sri Lanka. Funded primarily through a Grant of € 11.8 million by the European Union (EU), it is built on the ...