Sri Lanka: Overseas Aid

Mr. Drew
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what aid he has made available to Sri Lanka for 2009-10; and to which projects such aid (a) has been and (b) is to be allocated.

Mr. Michael Foster
Since September 2008, the Department for International Development (DFID) has allocated £7.5 million of humanitarian assistance to Sri Lanka. Of this, £1.96 million remains on hand to respond rapidly to needs on the ground.

In the 2009-10 financial year DFID has made available: £500,000 to the United Nations Children’s Fund for water and sanitation provision and child protection activities; £500,000 to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees for the emergency airlift of 5,000 tents for internally displaced persons; £550,000 to the United Nations Operations to provide 1,400 emergency shelters together with water and sanitation provision for at least 11,500 IDPs; and £650,000 to the International Organisation for Migration to establish, equip and staff 10 emergency mobile health clinics in IDP camps and provide emergency transport and logistics services.