Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2015-09-22

Programme on renovation of 25,000 houses to mark the World Habitat Day - 2015

- United Nations Organization has declared the first Monday of the month of October every year as the 'World Habitat Day'. Accordingly, this year's World Habitat Day falls on Monday the 05th of October and the theme followed this time is "Public Spaces for All".

It has been observed by the Ministry of Housing and Construction that there are many families reside for a long time in houses where only the preliminary construction work has been done and without having plastered the walls, in the housing construction process being implemented in various parts of the country and as a result issues have arisen such as reduction of economic value of houses, weakening of the strength of the houses by exposing them to elements of weather and causing health problems like respiratory failures of children and elderly living in these houses.

As such, in simultaneous to the World Habitat Day Celebration, the Ministry of Housing and Construction anticipates to implement a series of islandwide programmes, in association with the institutions affiliated to the Ministry, other public institutions and organizations. The period from October 5th to 12th is to be declared as the "Habitat Week". Accordingly, the proposal made by Hon. Sajith Premadasa, the Minister of Housing and Construction, to implement the proposed programmes under the direction of the Ministry, to mark the World Habitat Day – 2015, to select 25,000 houses comprised of 1,000 from each district of which walls need to be plastered and to obtain Rs.250 million to implement the renovation programme through providing only the building materials worth of Rs.10,000/- maximum for each selected house, was approved by the Cabinet.