The Saltpans Are the Distinctive Resources of the Puttalam

Mr Fawsan describes the income position of many families, ‘we get an IDPs allowance each month of only 1,500 rupees compared to a typical Tsunami displaced family which gets 5,000. No one can survive and eat on that and there’s no increased allocation for bigger families’. ‘Some youth work in the salt pans, some in the pawn farms although a recent outbreak of ‘white-spot’ disease has closed those places temporarily’. Some of the women, but very few, 7 from this village I think, manage to get work in the textile factory in town from which they earn about 4,000 per month (about $40).

A small inquisitive crowd is gathering now, all men as the women in this Muslim community generally keep away from strangers like me. Everyone has a story to tell although they’re unclear about what I can do about it but the overwhelming request is that I find funds for more toilets.

Mr Nafis joins the conversation, a 26 yrs old man who arrived here when he was 12 from Jaffna. ‘After I left Jaffna my education was interrupted and although my parents tried to get me into a school here the ‘donation’ requested by the school of 5,000 rupees was too high. I then spent a long time as a porter in town, carrying loads for traders and I saved a little each month. I saved 50,000 Rups and was able to join with a friend, gathering capital of 100,000 Rups, to start a buying and selling business in salt.’ The saltpans are the distinctive resources of the Puttalam area but the salt produced often lacks iodine, which contributes to a major health problem in Sri Lanka.

‘With my friend, Mr Nafis explains ‘We buy salt from the owners of the salt pans and we hire a lorry to take the product to cities like Kandy, Negombo and Colombo.’ The income is sometimes good but also is seasonal ‘Sometimes we make a profit’ says Mr Nafis, ‘but also often we fail to find purchasers for all our product and rather than bring it back we sell at a cheap or below cost rate and we loose our profit’.