Sri Lanka deployed the military for relief and rescue operations on Friday as the death toll from floods and landslides across the island rose to 56, with another 21 people missing.Helicopters, navy boats and thousands of troops are being used to evacuate stranded villagers in several parts of the country, the Disaster Management Centre (DMC) said.Rain was falling across the island’s entire 65,000-square-kilometre (25,000-square-mile) area, with some regions receiving 360 millimetres in the past 24 hours, the DMC said.The Kelani River, which flows into the Indian Ocean near the capital Colombo, was expected to breach its banks later on Friday and residents were warned to move to higher ground. Resident V. S. A. Ratnayake, 56, said he had to leave his flooded home in Kaduwela, just outside Colombo.”I think this could be the worst flood in our area for three decades,” Ratnayake told AFP. “I remember a flood in the 1990s when my house was under seven feet of water.”The army has deployed more than 20,000 troops, while the navy was using boats to evacuate villagers and to help clear debris.Of the 56 people confirmed dead, 26 were buried alive in mudslides in the tea-growing Badulla district in the central region, the DMC said. Another 21 are missing, with 14 more in hospital.Nearly 3,000 homes were damaged in mudslides and floods, and almost 15,000 people had been moved to temporary shelters.- Climbed a coconut tree -In Anuradhapura district in the north, an Air Force Bell 212 helicopter airlifted a man who had climbed a coconut tree to escape rising waters.Video footage released by the military showed similar rescues taking place across the country.The DMC said more rain was forecast, with Cyclone Ditwah likely to move away from the north towards the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu by Sunday.Officials from the agency said they expected flood levels to be worse than in 2016, when 71 people were killed nationwide.Another resident, M. A. Madushantha, 38, said floodwaters rose before his eyes and inundated his home on the banks of the Kelani.”I sent my children and wife to her sister’s house last night because we expected this,” Madushantha told AFP.- ‘Nowhere to go’ -The Sirasa TV network broadcast an appeal for help from a stranded woman in the central region of Ruwanwella.The woman, identified only as Akma, said she was upstairs in a two-storey home, with the ground floor completely flooded.”We are six people, including a one-and-a-half-year-old child. If the water rises another five steps up the staircase, we will have nowhere to go,” she said by telephone.Transport Minister Bimal Rathnayake said 60 Indian tourists who were stranded in central Sri Lanka were taken to Colombo on Friday.Sri Lanka is in its northeast monsoon season, but rainfall has intensified because of Cyclone Ditwah, the DMC said.Sri Lanka depends on seasonal monsoon rains for irrigation and hydroelectricity, but experts have warned that the country faces more frequent floods due to climate change.The government has suspended final-year school examinations nationwide for two days because of the weather, while civil servants were given a day off.Parliament also suspended its budget debate so that legislators could return to their constituencies to deal with the damage.This week’s weather-related toll is the highest since June last year, when 26 people were killed following heavy rains. In December, 17 people died in flooding and landslides.The worst flooding this century occurred in June 2003, when 254 people were killed.

Organisers are confident they can avoid the calamities of last time when India hosts the Commonwealth Games but there are many challenges for a country that also has Olympic ambitions.Ahmedabad, in Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state of Gujarat, was confirmed Wednesday as the venue for the 2030 Commonwealth Games.It is seen in India as a stepping stone towards the goal of hosting the 2036 Olympics and authorities hope it will establish the world’s most populous nation as a sporting destination.A successful Commonwealth Games will also help erase the memories of the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, which were marred by accusations of corruption and construction delays.Ahmedabad already boasts the world’s largest cricket stadium, a 130,000-seat arena named after Modi, which most likely will stage the opening and closing ceremonies. But beyond that, massive investment in roads, subway lines and sporting facilities are needed to reshape the city of more than seven million people.Barely five years until the competition is a comparatively short timeframe to get it all done.Ashwani Kumar, a senior Gujarat official who looks after sports, said Ahmedabad’s existing venues were capable of hosting the Games “with some modifications”.New arenas will also be built by “late 2028 or early 2029″.”We are very confident and we have done good homework as a team,” Kumar told reporters, adding that a budget had been worked out already, without giving figures.- Manpower issue -Aside from competition venues, India will need to boost infrastructure for the thousands of athletes, spectators and officials flooding into the city.Hotels are expected to add thousands of new rooms while the local airport will start construction on a new terminal next year.”Five years is enough for building our capacity,” said Narendra Somani, president of the Hotels and Restaurants’ Association of Gujarat.”Also, we expect the government to come up with some industry-friendly policies that would boost the outlook further.”Somani admitted personnel challenges.”We have a shortage of skilled workers in the hotel industry in Gujarat. We will have to hire workers from other states like Assam and Punjab,” he told AFP on Friday.- Bad memories -The spectre of the 2010 Commonwealth Games looms large.At the time the Games were meant to showcase India’s status as an emerging global power but headlines were instead about delays, shoddy construction and budget overruns.English and Australian swimmers blamed Delhi’s swimming pool for contracting a stomach virus while some athletes complained of finding a cobra in the Games village accommodation.India’s national auditor accused the Delhi government of wasteful spending to the tune of at least $29 million during its “ill-conceived and ill-planned” programme to beautify the city in the run-up to the Games.A report by the Comptroller and Auditor General also listed several examples of alleged rigged bidding for lucrative contracts to supply timekeeping equipment, lighting fixtures for the glitzy opening ceremony and catering services.The auditors blamed the organising committee for hyping up projected revenues from the Games to an astronomical 17.8 billion rupees.”In reality the total committed revenues amounted to just 6.8 billion rupees,” the report said.- ‘Well prepared’ -The Gujarat government official Kumar admitted that there were “some challenges” in 2010, but said this time was different.”We all are well prepared. We are very confident that we will deliver the Games which would be remembered in years to come,” said Kumar.But he also added a note of caution: “We don’t want to overcommit on anything, and would rather learn from the past editions of the Games elsewhere in the world.”