Department of Census and Statistics, Sri Lanka

This report contained 2 parts. Part 1 presents the housing characteristics of the damaged housing units and characteristics about the people who are living in those damaged housing units. Housing section covers height of the submerged sea water, condition of the toilet facilities, availability of drinking water, material used for construction, Number of rooms, floor area, ownership of the land, monthly income of the housing unit, economic activities existed within the unit and loss occurred. In addition, demographic characteristics such as age, sex, education, injuries and deaths of the people who are living in the damaged housing units also covered. Part 2 presents the characteristics of non-housing units such as ownership, type of activity, Number of employees and loss occurred. Following Table 1.1 shows the total number of building units damaged due to Tsunami at Puttalam district of the North western province.

Characteristics of Housing Units and Persons Living in the Damaged Housing Units

GND is the smallest administrative unit in Sri Lanka. In order to conduct Censuses these GN divisions were sub divided into 2 or 3 Census Blocks (CB). In the Tsunami Census, affected CB was identified if at least one damaged building unit was found in a CB. Listing forms which contained all the housing and non-housing units in those CBs, were updated after Tsunami to identify the number of building units which were completely damaged, partially damaged (Unusable) and partially damage (Usable). Following table 1.1 shows the number of housing units which were identified as damaged units. It should be mentioned that the number of housing units were slightly smaller than that was listed. To avoid complexities when analyzing, the total number of housing units were obtained form those listed whereas percentages were computed form the surveyed number of housing units in this report wherever applicable.

As a result of the Tsunami, most of the housing units which were located along the coastal belt were submerged by the sea water. This section covers the highest height of the submerged sea water into the damaged housing units which were located in the affected DS divisions of Puttalam district. Table 2.1, represent the height of the submerged sea water for damaged housing units in Puttalam district .

This section covers the condition of toilet facilities of the damaged housing units in the affected DS divisions of Puttalam district. Table 2.2, represent whether the toilet facilities were destroyed or not by affected DS divisions for damaged housing units respectively.

Availability of drinking water facility was not a serious problem to the Puttalam district according to the data, all damaged housing units in Puttalam district have drinking water facility

This section covers the material used for construction of the damaged housing units in the affected DS division of Puttalam district. Table 2.3 represents materials used for roof, wall and floor for all types of damaged housing units in the Puttalam district. Materials used for the construction of housing unit was considered permanent, if the roof, the walls and the floor were constructed using permanent material. Roof is considered permanent, if constructed using tiles / asbestos etc. Roof is considered Temporary, if constructed using cadjan /tin sheets etc. Walls are considered Permanent, if constructed using bricks /cement blocks etc. Walls are considered Temporary, if constructed using mud, wood / tin sheets etc. If any combination of materials other than ‘Permanent’ is considered as 'Temporary' in these tables.

This section covers the number of rooms and floor area of the damaged housing units in the affected DS divisions of Puttalam district. Table 2.4 and 2.5 represents the percentage of damaged housing units by rooms and the floor area of the all types of damaged housing units in affected DS divisions respectively.

This section presents information about the ownership of the land where the damaged housing units were located in the affected DS divisions of Puttalam district.

This section covers the monthly income of damaged housing units in the affected DS divisions of Puttalam district. This includes the total income of all income earners of the housing unit from all sources, before the Tsunami. Table 2.7 represents the monthly income of the damaged housing units in the affected DS divisions for damaged housing units .

This section covers the demographic characteristics of members who are living in the damaged housing units in the affected DS divisions of Puttalam district. A person was considered as a member of the housing unit if he/she was a usual resident of the housing unit when the Tsunami disaster occurred. They may be presently living in the housing unit or elsewhere such as a welfare center or a friend’s / relative’s house. Table 4.1 presents all the persons living in the damaged housing units in the affected DS divisions by sex. Children living in the damaged housing units who were below 5 years and below 10 years by sex are shown in tables 4.2 and 4.3 respectively. Five year age distribution of the people living in the affected housing units by sex is given in table 4.4 while women in the reproductive age group is shown in the table 4.5. Table 4.6 presents the economic activity of the people who have engaged before Tsunami and ability to continue the same at the time of the Tsunami Census. Table 4.7 presents the children below 18 years of age at the time of the Tsunami Census whether their parents are alive or not.

This section covers the information of children below 19 years of age whose parents are alive or not. Some children are fortunate to live with their parents while some children lost one or both parents. It should be important to mention here that those parents who have died, may have died due to any other reasons other than Tsunami.

This section inquires whether there was any disruption of education of the people who were in the age group between 3 to 34 years and living in the damaged housing units of affected DS divisions due to Tsunami. Since the event occurred at the end of the school year for 2004, there may be some new children who have just enrolled in the year 2005, during the period of Tsunami Census. Table 5.1 present this information.

If a person was disabled or injured or had a sickness due to Tsunami, information on such persons was collected at this census. According to the information on Puttalam district no person was reported to be injured due to Tsunami.

This section covers the number of people dead/disappeared who were living in the damaged housing units. There could be certain amount of under-reporting errors when collecting these information if there was no reliable respondents in those damaged housing units According to the information no dead/disappeared person was reported to be in Puttalam district.

This section covers the information about damages occurred to non-housing building units in the affected DS divisions of Puttalam district.