The Government of Sri Lanka in its latest report titled, Jaffna District Situation Report – September 2007, states that in spite of repeated attacks on sea convoys by the LTTE it continues to serve the civilians of the district.

The Government continues to work closely with the private sector, local and international non-governmental organizations as well as United Nations agencies to improve all aspects of the lives of the civilian population in the Jaffna district.

The 14 page report further states that at present there are nine cargo vessels that carry supplies to Jaffna based on a fine tuned procedure of demand forecasting, supplier audits for reliability and quality.  This has been a joint effort of the government and the private sector. In total 26,980 MTs capacity can be transported while the total monthly full requirement of food and other essential items is 33,000 MTs per month.

Hence, there is a reasonable match between demand and supply. However, with the withdrawal of the ICRC ship, arrangements had to be made by the government to send requirements together with the private sector. Recently, the private sector has also chartered yet another ship and such measures improve situation further.

The ICRC withdrew their services on the ships that carried health items to Jaffna due to LTTE threats.   However, the government took over this responsibility and as at today met this requirement too.  ICRC has not yet resumed this service even with repeated requests by the Government.

The report points out that the one great asset Sri Lanka has which must be acknowledged and recognized is that unlike in other crisis situations, Sri Lanka has a free primary health care service in terms of both access to health workers, clinics as well as supplies.This occurs in all the conflict affected areas.

The LTTE attack on the 11th of August 2006 at Muhamalai and the closing of the A-9 road for security concerns led to the Government having to find a new way of meeting the requirements of essential items of the people of Jaffna. Incidentally, after repeated requests by the government, the ICRC finally received guarantees from the LTTE that have enabled the opening for a longer period each week of the A-9 northward from Omanthai into LTTE controlled areas. Opening was restricted to three days a week following firing by the LTTE, which created some shortages but with the LTTE finally relenting the area south of the Jaffna peninsula should also be well supplied. Unfortunately constant attempts at infiltration at Muhumalai make the opening of the road southward from Muhumalai impossible at present.

Sea transport was the option selected for the transport of essential items whilst for urgent supplies air transport is being used.   Initially vessel owners were reluctant to lease their vessels due to threats of attacks by the LTTE on supplies to the people of Jaffna.  This became a reality when the ship “Liverpool” was attacked on 21st January 2007 by the LTTE. This led to severe shortages that were corrected over a period of time.  The government of Sri Lanka continued in their quest to serve the people of Jaffna through a private public partnership and chartered 3 vessels by the state whilst six vessels were chartered by the private sector to transport good to Jafna.   The vessel owners have demanded higher rates as well as war risk premiums as insurance cover but the objective of bringing normalcy to the people of Jaffna was achieved.

Meanwhile, the ICRC withdrew their services on the ships that carried health items to Jaffna due to LTTE threats.   However, the government took over this responsibility and as at today met this requirement too.  ICRC has not yet resumed this service even with repeated requests by the Government.

At present there are 9 cargo vessels that carry supplies to Jaffna based on a fine tuned procedure of demand forecasting, supplier audits for reliability and quality.  This has been a joint effort of the government and the private sector.   In total 26,980 MTs capacity can be transported for the people of Jaffna by the 9 cargo vessels while the total monthly full requirement of food and other essential items is 33,000 MTs per month. Hence, there is a reasonable match between demand and supply. However, with the withdrawal of the ICRC ship, arrangements had to be made by the government to send requirements together with the private sector. Recently, the private sector(FCCISL) has also chartered yet another ship and such measures improve situation further.

Supply of food items to Jaffna by - Sea and Air from August 2006 to August 2007.

The FCCISL has now chartered an exclusive ship for the transport of items by the private sector. Hence prices should be reduced further while this will also increase supplies to the peninsular.

For the food storage the following facilities are available:

• Navatkuli (3 stores)                                       7,000 MT
• Kondavil  (2 stores)                                       4,000 MT
• Kopay (WFP stores)                                      1,600 MT
• MPCs (24 stores)                                           2,400 MT
                                                                   ..................

                                                          Total                15,000 MT
                                                                                ========

Supply of Petrol/Diesel and Kerosene

Oil tanks that have 12,000 MT capacity has been rehabilitated and as at 4th September the storage capacity at KKS is as follows:

LP 90 & kerosene is equivalent to 20 days stock cover whilst the diesel is a 3 month stock cover based on the requirements for the people of Jaffna.

UNICEF – Education, water, hygiene and sanitation, child protection, health and nutrition.   UNICEF works with the Government Secretariat and government departments, local NGOs such as Sarvodaya, JSAC, White Pigeon, Wholistic Health Center, Ahavoli and INGOs such as Non-Violent Peace Force and Save the children.

                  UNHCR          -          IDP protection, shelter and Non food relief items.  UNHCR works with Solidar, JSAC and Danish Refugee Council.

                  WFP               -         Supplementary food for vulnerable groups, food for education, mother and child nutrition programmes and works with                                                     the Government Secretariat

                  WHO              -           Health technical support working with the government

                  FAO, UNDP  -            Agriculture, livelihood, and income          
                  & ILO                         generating activities working with the
                                                     Government departments

                  IOM               -           Shelter for returnees and IDPs and livelihoods.

                  UNHABITAT -           Implementing tsunami housing projects

All hospitals are functioning whilst regular supplies are being met based on the requirement.

Thriposha requirement is around 23 MT per month and 50 MT was delivered in the month of August 2007 so that the required protein levels can be made available to the people living in the peninsula.  Corn-Soya of 150 MT is the requirement for one month that the Government is making arrangements to ship in September to Jaffna.

The government aims at reducing malnutrition which focuses on the most vulnerable groups in the population which are young children, pregnant and lactating mothers.   This is mainly undertaken through the current primary health care infrastructure and free services which have been made available to all Sri Lankana including those in the North and East without discrimination.   Children are protected from immunizeable diseases,  attend MCH clinics for growth monitoring and have access to nutrition education including thriposhaya (supplementary food).   It also includes protection from diarrhea related deaths and malnutrition through access to oral rehydration therapy, treatment of acute respiratory infections which if left unattended can reinforce the circle of infection and malnutrition.   Another hazard which can be prevented by the action of public health officials in these areas includes the reduction of hazards such as unsafe excreta disposal and unsafe water which strengthen the link between malnutrition and infection.

The one great asset Sri Lanka has which must be acknowledged and recognized is that unlike in other crisis situations, Sri Lanka has a free primary health care service in terms of both access to health workers, clinics as well as supplies.   This occurs in all the conflict affected areas.   Such services are paid for by the government even in LTTE controlled areas.  It is, therefore, a service devoid of discrimination.   This service is an important element in reducing levels of malnutrition and prevents death including the more severe forms of malnutrition such as marasmus and kwashiorkor which do not occur in Sri Lanka.

This request is being addressed by the Ministry of Health with the help of the Government Agent. It is unfortunate that even Tamil doctors qualified from the Sri Lanka university system are reluctant to serve in Jaffna.. A meeting is planned in early November to evaluate work done to further improve the situation.

Education Items received up to April  (provided free by Government)

Uniforms                        -   159 MT (90% delivered)
School text books          -  117 MT (80% delivered)

Food for education program of WFP is implemented effectively. Nutritional level of food composition will further improve with the stock of thriposha that was sent.

Overall telephone facilities are as follows:

The replacement of mobile telephone to CDMA and new connection of CDMA are currently being issued. All mobile phones are functioning from July onwards. Currently the focus is to meet the demand for CDMA connection as it’s affordable to many.

Power supply almost came to a standstill after August 2006.  But today Jaffna town has 24 hours uninterrupted supply.

All water supply schemes are functioning now- (Except in the security zone – Kankesanthurai, Kallody-Thellipallai).

In the Jaffna Peninsula there are 20 water supply schemes in operation. Sources for these schemes are ground water from the shallow wells. The sources are mainly situated in the cultivation areas. Due to usage of artificial fertilizer by the farmers and improper sewerage facilities water pollution increased beyond the permissible limit and due to continuous over extraction of ground water for cultivation domestic and industrial needs. This is now been corrected by the Water Board.

15 D.S Divisions comprises 65,411 farm families and 30,113 farm labourers. Except onions, all other produce command good prices due to seasonality reasons. As the Maha Season is approaching the following inputs will be provide by the government and the private sector initiatives.

a.         Fertilizer for paddy.
            In 2007 to date 1125 Mt of fertilizer has been delivered to Jaffna. Another 2450 Mt of fertilizer and 200 Mt of ordinary fertilizer will be delivered for             the Maha season. 

b.         Agro Chemicals.
            90 Mt of agro Chemicals has been sent to date and another 40 mt of Agro chemicals will be delivered by end September 2007 which is adequate for             the Agricultural Sector of Jaffna.

c.         Seed Paddy
            7,000 bushels of seed paddy are required for the Maha season cultivation. Out of this 1,500 bushels which is available at present in south is being             shipped in the 2nd week of September 2007.

d.         Local Vegetables seeds /exotic vegetables seeds.
            183 kg local vegetables seeds from SEEDCO and 306 Kg of Exotic from Colombo. Orders placed for maha requirements have been sent to Jaffna             from the month of August.

There are 30,000 poultry farmers and 15,000 Dairy farmers in peninsula of Jaffna. Animal feed requirement of 600 MT is being supplied at a continuous basis whilst USAID has extended funding to milk processing. The restructuring of MILCO has been completed to meet the increasing demand of the people of Jaffna.

Review Meeting at the Jaffna  Yalpanam Chamber  By Director Economics Scopp – July 2007.

17,763 fishing families are affected due to the current security situation that the Government of Sri Lanka has been compelled to implement to bring in normalcy in the peninsular.  However, the following arrangement has been arrived at after discussions.

Details of Shallow Water Fishing as at 05-08-2007.

A continuous ferry service is operational between Jaffna and Trincomalee.   400 passengers can be accommodated in one voyage.  There are also 3 air lines  (2 passenger and 1 cargo)  operated daily.  On average there are 200 passengers  who travel to and from Jaffna per day using air travel.

33 new buses have been sent to Jaffna whilst the spare part requirement as requested has also been sent.  The challenge is how to make the Jaffna  SLTB Depot  to be run profitably.

 SCOPP – Director Economics with Bishop of Jaffna  - July 2007   

All IDP’s are on the government assistance scheme or the WFP Programme as at 20th August 2007.

On the supply of Essential services the Commissioner General of Essential Services reports the monthly performance to the Security Council which is chaired by His Excellency the President whilst operational meetings are chaired by Senior Advisor to the President, Mr Basil Rajapakse.

SCOPP Economic Division conducts periodic price audits and makes field visits to understand the ground situation. There after recommends strategies to improve the logistical network and supply change of performance by bridging the private sector, government sector partnership.

SCOPP Economic Division follows up on all the foreign funded and locally funded economic development projects as well as visits projects to determine the facilitation required to drive the projects to completion quicker.

Once a quarter a visit is made to Jaffna by the Director Economics for a complete review of the work done in the Jaffna Peninsular by the GA Jaffna.