Arugam Bay is a bay situated on the Indian Ocean in the dry zone of
Sri Lanka's southeast coast. The bay is located 320 km due east of
Colombo. It is a popular surfing and tourist destination. Many of the
buildings were destroyed in the 2004 tsunami. Due to its popularity
among tourists, the area has managed a slow recovery by private
initiatives only. The main road through town has still not been repaved.
As late as the beginning of 2010 no help has been received from any
official source or international organizations. An exception is
uncoordinated support for fishing folk as well as many school rebuilding
programs, resulting in a continuation to provide only separatist
schools for each community. Although there is a huge demand for an
international school, one huge new building donated by the people of
Japan remains unoccupied since the grand 'opening' ceremony in 2007.
The bay hosts a large fleet of fishing boats which operates off the
beach. Many organizations donated boats after the tsunami and as a
result there are far more fishing boats than ever before. The main beach
is a bit dirty as it is used as a garbage dump and a toilet by some
locals. Nearby beaches are more esthetically pleasing and also have
excellent waves. Arugam Surf Point has a very long, consistent, sectiony
right hand break. Many organizations claim to have done extensive work
in the area. No notable progress can be observed locally and on close
inspection, as late as New Year's Day, 2010. The main road, shown below
in 2004 still looked the very same at the end of 2009. Despite calls for
a walking street contractors have recently (September, 2010)completed
construction of a fast trunk road through the hamlet. Repeating the
mistakes made in other seaside tourist resorts such as Negombo and
Hikkaduwa. US 'Mercy Corps' has been the most active of any
organization. Funded by Oprah Winfrey's 'Angel Network', following a
huge fund-raising TV series in the United States.
Sadly, none of their projects survived the first year of operation. A
new bridge has been constructed by USAID.
It was opened for traffic in
2008. It replaced the 1960s, original landmark box girder construction
linking Arugam Bay with Pottuvil. At km 313 on the main A4 (the famous
Colombo High Level Rd. - PottuVille), an excellent shortcut side road
exists, which ends up in the very middle of Arugam Bay itself. This
picturesque drive avoids the dusty town of PottuVille. Also no bridges
need to be crossed. Raising questions regarding the wisdom for the need
of the so-called 'high tech' USAID bridge construction. There is
excellent elephant viewing nearby, incl. on this mentioned jungle road
and the surrounding lagoon, as well as two types of monkeys wandering
around the area.
The nearby (4 km) Muslim village of Pottuville is the center of commerce
and transportation while tourist accommodations lie along the beach to
the south of Pottuville Arugam Bay (4 km) is also the gateway and the
only road access to the Yala East National Park. This area is known as
Kumana (44 km), to be reached via the Sinhalese settlement of Panama (17
km) and the shires at Okanda (32 km). Sources of further, up-to-date
local information: [1] [2] Arugam Bay has its own insiders, veteran and
fan club (777 members end 2008, 5,500 members August, 2009). History was
made on election day, 26 January 2010. The Community page Facebook page
"Arugam Surf" managed to attract more than 10,000 fans. Making it the
fasted growing Facebook site in Sri Lanka. By end 2010 this, Sri Lanka's
first and oldest FB fan page has attracted near 20,000 loyal members.
Remarkable for such a small, remote hamlet of just 2,500 residents.
Source - http://www.directlink.lk/arugam.html
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