Where did all the tsunami money go?

henrietta ashby (right) went to help Sri Lanka’s victims. Her task was made impossible

Ten months after the tsunami waves hit Sri Lanka, claiming the lives of 35,000 people and destroying more than 80,000 homes, I left England with hopes of working to re-build some of the country's houses. Just before Christmas I returned having built only one shop - and with my eyes opened to the problems that dog aid work.

Exactly how much of the £1.64bn that was pledged to Sri Lanka in aid has been embezzled by the government of Mahinda Rajapakse is unclear, but only 1,126 homes have been rebuilt since the tsunami - with the cost of building a basic house said to be only around £1,400. Despite this, aid agencies have struggled to import materials. Oxfam was made to pay $1m in import duty for its vehicles; containers filled with clothes and other items were detained in Colombo on demand of 30 per cent import duty.

Further hindering the reconstruction project is a ban on rebuilding any house within 100 metres of the coastline. In theory, this is a good idea. In practice, there is a major pitfall: where are the displaced, fairly tribal people who used to live within that area supposed to go? Their aid money may be enough to buy land, but it will not stretch to building a house as well. The process is also complicated by confusion over ownership; records were destroyed in the tsunami. Some families seek to take advantage: they claim the rights of two houses, or ownership of land that belonged to those killed.

But regardless of the added confusions, one fact remains. For the past year, thousands of self-sufficient, skilled people have been reduced to a state of poverty. In the same period, it is estimated that the Sri Lankan government has received enough aid money to rebuild the whole country twice over. It seems the reconstruction process will continue to face the hurdles of bureaucracy, corruption and greed until politics is separated completely from aid money.