Among the war devastated to be rehabilitated, the displaced of Wanni are a category apart. Battered by cruel fate, they evoke our sympathy and call for proactive support. War was traumatizing. Embargoes impoverished them. Attempts at rearing their heads met with repeated failure. Today they lead a life of deprivation and penury. For a quarter century, they were driven to an existence of nomadic drift. They have now to move to settled life and integrate with a society that was peaceably placed. With their spirit remaining unbroken yet, they await the thrust from government to lift them. This hope nourishes their faith. The government is under obligation to sustain their faith by delivering on their prime need - housing. Can there be a more convincing and swifter path to reconciliation?

To be sheltered from the vagaries of weather is fundamental. A place to call one’s home is among the strongest of wants. Above it all is to be secure from the blasts of life, to realize which, housing is basic. For ordered living, economic wellbeing and social cohesion, people strive all their lives. These values remain shattered in the Wanni. To the homeless, a house is the obsession. Ramakrishna Paramahamsa said – " to the starving man God appears in the form of bread". To the shelterless in the Wanni, God will appear in the form of a house. Afflicted with a toothache, one cannot think of anything else. The devastated in Wanni can think of nothing besides their predicament. Once settled in mind with housing out of their way, economic pursuits can be mapped out by them with their own personal initiatives.

How do we lay the foundation for house construction, which really is an effort at nation building? Sympathy for the deprived, concern for those displaced, restoring their dignity, thoughts of mainstreaming and love for their well being, are worthwhile ideals. They can however loose their trace in the dreary desert sand of inaction. Mao Tse Tung posed a question challengingly – "with platonic love can you bring forth a child?"

To deliver housing, what are the orders of magnitude? Can we lumber along or do we have compulsive timelines? To build is to have money, but do we have the resources? It is estimated that over 100,000 houses have to be constructed. The area comprises four administrative districts. At a unit cost of Rs.400,000 per house, financing is required in a sum of Rs.40 billion. The programme of construction should be three years in order to banish homelessness most speedily.

Housing on such a scale to be undertaken at frenetic speed and with financial outlay of this magnitude are within the competence of the state and state only. Practicable strategies have to be adopted with full appreciation of insuperable constraints. Finances are not available with the government and construction capacity does not exist with the homeless. A prospective donor with a likely inclination to assist has to be identified. Immediately, China comes to mind. As for friendly disposition, she is among the closest to Sri Lanka. Financial resources are aplenty to make her generous. It is worthy of note that China ranks first in the world in reserves of exchange and gold at $ 2.2 trillion. She is second in exports and third in GDP. Aid for Wanni housing is a meager amount for China’s consideration.

If the government of Sri Lanka would zero in on China, then assistance has to be solicited and aid negotiated. As important would be the strategy for delivery. The entire programme of housing in the Wanni needs to be undertaken as a turnkey assignment with construction capacity to be developed by the donor. It is crucial to understand that the situation in the Wanni is unenviable. The displaced are undernourished and therefore physically incapacitated for strenuous work. Decades of marginalization has deprived them of organizational capability. Construction indispensables like cement, steel and timber have to be imported. Construction equipment and transport vehicles are needed in large numbers. When construction capacity is comprehensively viewed, the intractable limitations would make any effort at construction by the beneficiary impossible. The turnkey approach is therefore not an option but a compulsion. It would encompass planning, financing, mobilization of technical cadres and labour, import of machinery and equipment and the import of materials. All these without the hazzle of time consuming procedures will be the best part of the deal.

An alternative pitted against donor turnkey is the concept of owner driven construction. How does it work? The government solicits aid – multilateral, bilateral or institutional and farms it to certain agencies which participate in the construction process. Aid procurement is piecemeal and the volume grows over time. In the six-year period from 2004 to 2010, a total of 36,000 new houses were delivered. When the target is trebled and the time span halved, an altogether different mode is required. Hence the choice of China, a nation renowned for miraculous performance.

What is the rationale behind owner-driven construction? It is assumed that the stake holder who had lost his house and his livelihood knows his needs best. Therefore however prostrate he may be as of now, will put his heart and soul into the rebuilding process. He will be back on his feet at the earliest since he will build at the speediest. Above all is the mystical satisfaction he will derive from the participatory process. From these theoretic presuppositions flow the mythical concept of owner-driven housing. How tenable is this hypothesis?

The owner with possessions lost, driven to perpetual migration and with all means and hopes dashed looks up for assistance. We preach to him the virtues of robust self-reliant endeavour. A further argument is advanced that the owner joining in house building will have employment income. The Gal Oya project was planned for agricultural incomes. During dam construction, the suggestion of carrying earth in baskets was put across for providing employment. The American Engineer said, why baskets? carrying in teaspoons will give greater employment! The de-housed cannot be made to wait till doomsday for our debate to finish. With experience to guide, knife in butter decisions have to be taken.

What was the composition of the Wanni population? Agriculturists, livestock farmers, poultry breeders, retail traders, fishermen, transporters, artisans and many others. All of them resuming their earlier avocations is just the beginning point of economic regeneration. For these pursuits, housing is basic. For the economic life of the North to flow to all parts of the country, transport may be looked at as a case in point. It would highlight the dire straits at present and emphasize the Himalayan scale of investment that is needed. Omnibuses and private coaches in the North were a mere 936 in 2007 as against 41,000 in the country. Goods transport vehicles were 1916 contrasted to 182,000 of the island’s total. The scope for state facilitation for employment generation in transport may be realized, as for every sector of activity. Coupling employment with house construction and delaying the process of house delivery is disastrous for mainstreaming the North with the rest of the country.

With housing in place, a major indispensable facility becomes available. Education, health services, skills training, economic diversification and industrialization can follow coterminously towards the path of modernization.