Monsoon brings sorrow for tsunami victims

Port Blair: The early onset of the monsoon in India has brought misery for thousands of tsunami victims in the remote Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

The Indian Ocean archipelago was badly hit by the December 26, 2004 tsunami, with more than 3,500 people killed and nearly 40,000 displaced. Survivors of the tragedy are now struggling to keep rain water out of their temporary shelters.

The government provided temporary shelters fashioned out of corrugated metal sheets for victims promising to move them into new, permanent homes by 2007, but work on the latter is moving at snail's pace.

In the meantime, monsoon rains have begun testing temporary dwellings, pouring in through holes in the roofs and further testing the poor drainage, residents said.

"Rain water is flooding the shelters. Heavy spells are adding to our misery," said Martin Luther, a spokesman for the Tribal Council on the Nicobar islands.

"The administration has admitted slippages and they will struggle to finish building permanent homes by 2008," Subhasis Roy of Healthy Environment and Less Pollution told Reuters in Port Blair, capital of the Andaman and Nicobar islands.