Prevention of water borne diseases in the tsunami affected Thotagamuwa-Hikkaduwa area of southern Sri Lanka

Thotagamuwa, Hikkaduwa in the southern coast of Sri Lanka was devastated by the Indian Ocean tsunami of December 26, 2004 leaving the affected population with poor sanitation conditions and at risk to water borne diseases and vector borne diseases. The Thotagamuwa Tsunami Relief Environmental Health Program(THOTEN) is serving a community of four thousand households towards improving the quality of drinking water through chlorination and providing for hand washing with soap-the Safe Water System(SWS).The first monitoring and evaluation survey conducted after three months of interventions are revealing that the population is beginning to use the SWS introduced under the THOTEN program. It also revealed that numbers have increased in awareness of appropriate use of soap to wash hands. The paper describes the overall approach and methodology used and the preliminary results.