Sri Lanka has secured most of the $1.8 billion worth of aid it reckons it needs to rebuildtowns and villages razed along its tsunami-ravaged coastline, what it needs now is land to build them on, Reuters reported yesterday.

The government has imposed a coastal buffer of at least 100metres (330 feet) along its southern, eastern and northernshores, where around 40,000 perished in December’s tsunami,and land for reconstruction beyond it is proving hard to comeby.

"There are land acquisition problems," said Suren Batagoda,head of the state Urban Development Authority’s tsunami housingunit tasked with finding and acquiring land to build on.

Some families are refusing to sell land the state wouldlike to acquire, and in some cases geography is getting in theway. The east, which was hardest hit by the tsunami, ispeppered with vast lagoons.

"Our policy is to give land closest to the originallocation where (those displaced) lived. But options arelimited," Batagoda added. "In some areas...we don’t have landto build houses because of the sea and lagoons. When we passthe lagoons, it is too far inland."

The Urban Development Authority has secured land to buildaround half of the 60,000 permanent houses the government’stsunami reconstruction plan initially envisages.

But with 500,000 people displaced by Sri Lanka’s worstnatural disaster in memory, it is a race against time. Around100,000 survivors are living in wooden shacks, tents ortemporary shelters, with the balance living with family andfriends.

Standing beside her field tent near the ruined remains ofher seaside home near the historic southern town of Galle,Noeline Welandaratne and thousands of tsunami survivors likeher have nowhere else to go and are hostage to the government’sprogress.

"My home is destroyed, finished," the 49-year-old said."They have a big plan and have to build many houses, so we willhave to wait. We have to believe they will, no?"

Donors say some plots the government has identified in thesouth are so far inland that fishermen would be cut off fromthe sea, and hoteliers are defying the buffer zone andrebuidling next to the beach as fast as they can.

Sri Lanka’s biggest donor, the International Federation ofRed Cross and Red Crescent Societies, which has raised $400million for Sri Lanka, has so far secured land for 9,000 of the15,000 houses it has pledged.

"The Muslim areas (in the east) are very crowded...so it’svery difficult to find land to build houses," said MarcalIzard, spokesman for the International Committee of the RedCross in Sri Lanka.

"We’re still in the phase of finding suitable land plots,"he added, though officials said it was important that thegovernment and donors take time to properly plan futuresettlements and ensure that title deeds and land ownership areclear.

In the LTTE-controlled areas in the north and the eastof the island, the rebels and the government, who have stillto reach a deal on sharing tsunami aid, have yet to agree onwhere to rebuild hundreds of homes.

Some donors who asked not to be identified said they wereset to start construction projects, but were still waiting forthe government to give the final go-ahead.

Rather than centralising aid, the Sri Lankan government iseffectively outsourcing the bulk of its reconstruction projectsto relief agencies, leaving the lion’s share of the $1.5billion worth of firmly committed aid in donor hands. (Reuters)