Water Water Everywhere....

 “Water…. Water…. Water…. Water….”my mum continually exclaimed relatively excitedly (for her), as we proceeded south in our tiny Maruti Suzuki along the expressway on Friday afternoon heading to Unawatuna for the weekend. The highway, usually surrounded by lush paddy fields and trees of all kinds, had turned into a causeway. My mum’s language is now rather limited and very often inaccurate but that day she was 100% correct! And as the water continued and we continued along the causeway, I started to think about foundations. The previous week in Wellawatta in Colombo an apartment building in the late stages of construction had collapsed injuring quite a few. I started to wonder about whether the road construction workers had put a lot of effort into getting the right mix for the foundations. I tried to forget about the stories at the time of the road construction of people stealing the materials for the highway in the night and replacing them with cheaper ones or not replacing them at all. But that’s me. I worry. In the end we made it safely to Unawatuna. No storms, no flooding. All fine.

Saturday I tried to get to Matara to visit a friend for dinner. Got to the turning onto the road for the highway and read the signage, “ Rahula junction closed because of flooding.” Was pleased with the correct English (not always the case in these signs). Not pleased with the message. You could get to Matara on the highway but you couldn’t get from the exit to Matara town because the road was flooded. So that put a stop to that. The next day tried to get back to Colombo on the highway. Got as far as Aluthgama – halfway – then all vehicles had to exit. I asked the toll guy if the road between the exit and Aluthgama town was ok. He must have been asked this in various languages all morning by everyone coming off the highway. But he had kept his sense of humour. ‘Yes yes’ he said emphatically and ‘you can swim, no?’ I thought but didn’t say, “Well I possibly can but I don’t think my 89 year old mother with dementia has a hope in hell of swimming anywhere never mind in a flood.” Despite my dad’s best efforts to teach her over the years she never really got beyond a breadth of the local baths. Not a water lover my mother at the best of times. We eventually got back to Colombo – it just took a bit longer.

Over 500,000 affected by the flooding. Over 200 dead and 100 still missing. Sri Lanka doesn’t have much luck with water.