State Minister of Defence Premitha Bandara Tennakoon chaired a meeting today (05) with representatives of UN agencies, international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) and NGOs to brief them on the ongoing rescue and relief operations to assist adverse weather-affected communities.The state minister presented the UN, INGO and NGO officials with the latest development in weather and progress of the ongoing relief operations carried out by disaster management authorities through District and Divisional Secretariats in coordination with tri-forces, Sri Lanka Police, Civil Security Department and other state officials. He highly appreciated the assistance and cooperation that was readily facilitated by the UN agencies, INGOs and NGOs for providing relief to flood victims and he said that more was needed to be done in post-disaster repair and rebuilding stages to restore civilian life affected by this disaster. He further requested them to enhance their assistance and allocations towards relief work, the Defence Ministry said in a statement.He especially requested their assistance towards repairing schools, where many safe centres are located providing shelter to a large number of flood victims and damaged houses.

The UN, INGO and NGO officials expressed willingness to provide all assistance in this regard, the statement added. Disaster Management Centre officials, and representatives of UN agencies including UNICEF, WHO, Red Cross, World Vision etc and NGOs were also present at the discussion.