With the Slave Island flats falling apart, authorities are issuing evacuation orders, but residents fear the lack of livelihood once they relocate and blame successive Governments for failing to maintain the buildings or provide permanent housing solutions
Seven hundred residents at the Wekanda Housing Scheme at Stuart Street, Slave Island have been ordered to immediately evacuate the building since it is on the verge of collapse and poses a major risk to human life.
The four five storeyed tenements were constructed in 1974 and currently houses 114 families, and at least 32 other residents authorities say are living there illegally. The building was maintained by the Housing Development Authority, but residents say maintenance has not been carried out on the building at all since 2003. Heaps of garbage lie outside each building, resulting in squalid and unlivable conditions for the flat dwellers.
Last week, Wekanda Municipal Ward Member for the CMC, Harshard Nizamdeen was surrounded by irate residents who had been told to evacuate the flats as soon as possible.
The flats were actually meant for temporary occupation and the buildings had not been maintained since the Condominium Management Board was dissolved in 1994, Nizamdeen said.
On his proposal in 2009, only essential repairs had been done at a cost of Rs 900,000, he added. Arrangements made to relocate residents to the Henamulla flats at Grand Pass also did not materialize because the houses were not suitable, the Municipal Council member said.
Last Wednesday, Disaster Management Minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya directed that the flat inmates be immediately evacuated to temporary homes, since the building was unstable. During the meeting, the Minister noted that a report by the National Building Research Organisation in 2012 found that the building was not fit for human habitation. The Cabinet would provide necessary support to provide temporary residences through his Ministry, Siyambalapitiya said, adding that the Government would take the responsibility to provide these flat dwellers with permanent housing solutions. “But first, the buildings must be evacuated to avert a threat to life,” the Minister told officials at the meeting.
Lillian Grero, a middle-aged tenant of the flat, recounted the bureaucratic apathy she had encountered over the past decades. “We have been living here for the last 45 years. My son in his dream to put up a new house somewhere else joined the Army in 1990 but prematurely died. This place is a human hell especially, when it rains.
The wall plastering peels off often,” she complained. Grero says, they continue to live in the squalid conditions because the flats were situated in a convenient location. “We have no alternative, anyway,” she added.
Piyasena Nanayakkara, a Wekanda resident for the past 45 years, says his home in Maradana was demolished to build the SLFP Headquarters. “We were temporarily accommodated in Wekanda and we still live here. The water supply is erratic and no politicians visit us now,” he scoffs.
Kareema Munawwar, who also lives in Wekanda, said she had been assured by President Ranasinghe Premadasa that a better housing option would be granted to them. “But for 40 years we have been here. The Government says it has no funds to make repairs. Once more, we are being deceived,” she says.
At the housing scheme, a single flat contains two sections and a bathroom. The space barely fits two people, but Nanayakkara says seven or eight people sometimes occupy that space.
Despite the problems at the Stuart Road flats, residents remain reluctant to relocate.
As long-term residents of the Slave Island area, their livelihood options are closely intertwined with the location. But soon, the choice may no longer be up to them.