KOSLANDA, SRI LANKA // Sri Lankan authorities warned of more landslides at a tea plantation where a deadly torrent of mud swept away scores of homes this week, but residents said on Friday there was no room left at the shelters.
Disaster officials estimate that at least 100 people were killed on Wednesday when monsoon rains unleashed a cascade of muddy earth at the Koslanda plantation in Badulla district.
The death toll has yet to be confirmed, and many villagers believe the figure could exceed 200.
Kannusamy Mahendran, 34, whose home was still standing but in the danger zone, said residents have been warned of mudslides several times since 2002. But he said alternative housing has always been the problem.
“Officials come here and ask us to leave, but they don’t tell us where to go,” he said.
Mr Mahendran said the government provided housing for only 25 of the 75 families in his neighbourhood over the past years, and the rest are now being told to move into nearby schools and temples with the survivors of Wednesday’s slide.
“But we can’t go, [those shelters] are overcrowded.”
The shelters are home to 1,600 people, most of them with homes still standing but vulnerable to more slides, said Rohana Keerthi Dissanayake, a top official in the region.
Local disaster relief official Udaya Kumara urged people in vulnerable areas to come to the camps, and promised to do his utmost to accommodate them.
“We can’t give them the comforts of their homes, but we will give them whatever is possible. They must think that life comes first.”
Those whose kin are missing waited in agony as rescue workers using heavy machinery and sniffer dogs searched through the mud on Friday.
Authorities said there was no hope of finding survivors, but many relatives say they want to give their loved ones a proper burial.
“They died tragically, but at least I want to give them a dignified funeral,” said Sinniah Yogarajah, who lost all five members of his household – his wife, two sons, daughter-in-law and his 6-month-old grandchild.
As the scope of the disaster becomes clear, the government has asked the National Child Protection Authority to take charge of orphans.
Many children had left for school before Wednesday’s landslide, only to return to find their homes buried and their parents missing. Others looked as the mud engulfed their homes with their parents still inside.
Ravichandran Gajini, 14, said she and her 12-year-old brother, Suresh, watched their parents’ last moments before the landslide swallowed up their home.
“We did not go to school that day and suddenly people shouted that there was an earth slip,” she said. “We all ran out but my parents went back to collect our identity cards and the birth certificates.”
She never saw her parents again.
Authorities were working to confirm how many children were orphaned. A government minister told parliament on Thursday that they have found 75 orphans, but the number needs to be confirmed.
A large number of children in Sri Lanka’s tea plantations drop out of school and work as domestic helpers or waiters in tea shops, and the government fears they could be exploited by recruiters.
Sri Lanka, formerly called Ceylon, is one of the world’s leading tea producers.
Most of Sri Lanka has experienced heavy rain over the past few weeks, and the Disaster Management Centre had issued warnings of mudslides and falling rocks. The monsoon season here runs from October to December.
* Associated Press
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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