Xi offers flood victims help, condolences

years in the southern and western parts of the island.

Many villages were still underwater on Sunday, officials said.

Nearly 2,000 houses were damaged or completely destroyed. Almost half a million Sri Lankans had been forced from their homes, with most moving into temporary shelters.

The charity Save the Children said about a tenth of those displaced were children below the age of five years.

It said that the stagnant floodwaters provide the perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes and could exacerbate the dengue crisis that has seen an almost 150 percent increase in cases compared to the same period last year.

“The humanitarian situation in Sri Lanka right now is alarming. The impact of these early monsoon season downpours has been far more devastating than what we’d normally expect this time of the year,” Save the Children’s Chris McIvor said.

Medical teams have been dispatched to the worst-affected areas to help prevent an outbreak of waterborne diseases.

“We have the expertise to deal with this situation,” Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne said, adding that cholera and diarrhea had been successfully prevented in past floods.

The government, meanwhile, has withdrawn an evacuation order for thousands of residents in the southern district of Matara as water levels subsided.

The United Nations said it will provide water containers, water purification tablets and tarpaulin sheets while the World Health Organization will support medical teams in affected areas.