It will take Sri Lanka three to five years to recover from December's devastating tsunami, a British lawmaker said Thursday, dashing hopes that the country would be largely back on track by year's end. Britain's Development Minister Gareth Thomas was on a two-day visit to Sri Lanka to meet with Sri Lankan officials and discuss post-tsunami issues. More than 31,000 Sri Lankans were killed and nearly 1 million displaced by the tsunami, AP reported. «The scale of destruction is large and wide,» Thomas said at a news conference in Colombo. «The full recovery will take three to five years.» Mano Tittawella, chairman of the Presidential Task Force for Relief and Rebuilding the Nation, previously said the majority of permanent houses for tsunami victims would be built by the end of the year More than 77,560 houses were either partially damaged or completely destroyed in the Dec. 26 tsunami, and the government has already signed 170 agreements with local and international donors to finance the reconstruction.
