When the residents of Andargasyaya village woke up in morning they found their feet in water. Their houses were flooded and everything around them was floating.

The incessant rain in the hills of Sri Lanka during the second week of January has wreaked havoc. In the hills landslides disrupted life and flash floods devastated life in the southern parts of the country.

Widespread damage was caused by the flash floods, as water flowed down the slopes decimating everything that came its way.

Roads and bridges were washed away in the floods. Power and water supply broke down. Communication links were severed as water uprooted the telephone and electricity poles.

"I got up around 4 a.m. and found that the house was full of water. I opened the door to see that the entire village was under water. The water level was above the knee,'' said R. P. Seetha, a resident of Andargasyaya.

Once the first light came people started leaving the village. Some used tractor-trolleys, while others walked to the nearest Kirindagama school. Fortunately, there was no floodwater in the school.

Some 138 families from the village found refuge in the school. The Buddhist monk from the nearest temple provided food and water to these families.

"The government officials came and distributed dry ration, milk, dry fish, mosquito net, sarees for women, clothes for children and 5 kilograms of rice to each family. Doctors too came and checked us," Seetha said.

After three days the families began returning home. The floodwater had receded, but had left behind lot of debris and sludge.

The challenge began once the families returned home. Water had damaged their houses and washed away their belongings. Almost all the houses were either completely or partially damaged. Cracks could be seen on walls of the houses that still held ground.

Most of the families lost their toilets and kitchens, which were built outside the house.

The people were even more shocked when they went to their fields. Their paddy crop, which was ready for harvest, had been washed away too. Their lands were covered with slush.

According to government's estimate some 2,500 acres of paddy crop was completely washed away in Hambantota district alone.

J. H. Jayasekara lost two-and-a-half acres of paddy. "My field is completely destroyed. My house is damaged and all the coconut trees I had are damaged. I wonder how I will feed my family," he said.

Without a toilet and a kitchen, these families struggled to survive in their homes. The water pipes and pumps at the pumping stations were broken so there was no supply of clean water.

"We realized the need of these people and on the day floods hit the area, we started supplying water to the people in the camps,'' said Dharme Bandara, programme coordinator Oxfam in Hambantota.

Oxfam has been working in Sri Lanka for over 20 years now. It has offices in Hambantota and Matara in the South.

So the Hambantota office of Oxfam began supplying water to the camps and when the families moved to the villages, supplies were sent there too.

"The support we got from Oxfam saved us a lot of trouble," said S. P. Mawannaarachchi, Grama Niladhara of Andargasyaya. "We have got water from Oxfam at a time when clean water was scarce here."

Oxfam supplied 18,000 litres of water everyday to two camps and six villages in Hambantota district.

Y. Abeysooriya lost six acres of chilli crop. The family is left with no source of income. "We will now have to work as farm labour or seek some other labour work in the nearby town,'' she said.

Oxfam is looking at the possibility of starting some livelihood programmes to support these families till they are able to clean up their lands and sow the next crop.

In the south Oxfam is working with small and medium scale farmers, helping them set up cooperative farms and linking them to the markets. Also, it works with Coir producers and had provided assistance to lace makers to re-establish their units after the tsunami wrecked havoc in December 2004.

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