Worst Sri Lankan Rains In 18 Years - Lower Floor Of Parliament Under 3 Feet Of Water - AFP

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COLOMBO — Sri Lanka sent in troops to rescue thousands of residents marooned in the capital Colombo on Thursday after the heaviest rains in 18 years flooded the city and the national parliament. Speaker Chamal Rajapakse was forced to take a boat to inspect the national assembly located on an island in a man-made lake, which is usually reached by a causeway.

MPs were later ferried to it in military amphibious fighting vehicles for a brief five-minute session, held in darkness, during which they passed six pieces of legislation under bipartisan agreement. The red-carpeted main chamber itself was dry, but the assembly's lower floor was under more than a metre (3 feet 3 inches) of water, mirroring other areas of the capital where thousands of homes were inundated.

Irrigation Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva said the flooding was caused by the loss of marshes in Colombo which had previously acted as a sponge to soak up water during downpours. Most of them have been drained for housing development.

"There is message in this disaster," de Silva told reporters outside the flooded parliament. "We need to take more care of our environment and pay more attention to protecting our eco-systems." Overnight rains dumped 44.5 centimetres (17.5 inches) of rain on the city, the biggest deluge since June 1992, when 49.7 centimetres fell in a day.

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