The rains brought to a halt the reconstruction work on thousands of homes, and exacerbated the key problem that still afflicts tsunami-hit India and Sri Lanka - the lack of permanent housing for survivors.

Five Indian provinces were struck by the tsunami, including the distant Andaman and Nicobar Islands, located close to the epicentre of the earthquake. In Sri Lanka, the northern and eastern provinces, already devastated by 20 years of civil war, were hardest hit.

A survey by the Fritz Institute, a San Francisco group that provides logistical expertise to relief organisations, showed that tsunami survivors in India and Sri Lanka were generally satisfied with the provision of food, water, clothing and medical care.

However, the challenge is to provide permanent homes and fully restore livelihoods. The survey revealed 92 per cent of survivors in India and 78 per cent in Sri Lanka still live in transit camps. The primary reasons for this are land allocation and coastal zoning issues. Worsening the go-slow in Sri Lanka has been ongoing strife between the government and Tamil rebels.

According to Oxfam, around 78,000 new houses are still needed in Sri Lanka; about twice that number in India. Only a few thousand were expected to be ready by the December 26 anniversary of the tsunami.

'Progress might seem tardy, but resolving land issues in a densely populated country is not easy,' said Unicef Sri Lanka representative JoAnna Van Gerpen.

'Building permanent housing is a slow business even in stable, rich societies,' said Oxfam. 'In Florida, for example, thousands of families remain in temporary accommodation more than a year after Hurricane Ivan hit the state.'

But a new concern, especially in Sri Lanka, is the spiralling cost of construction. 'Prices have gone up by a third in the last four months,' complained Patrick Fuller of the Red Cross.

Scores of NGO workers are occupying hotel rooms in Sri Lanka and India, as an alliance of governments, UN agencies, and international and local NGOs pushes ahead with the complicated task of reconstructing shattered coastal communities.

Though many people have resumed work and children are back at school, life is still far from normal. There is a new factor everyone has to contend with: fear of the sea. Despite the over-generous gifting of boats by donors, the fishing industry, the mainstay of the coastal economies, functions only at 70 per cent of pre-tsunami levels.

In Tamil Nadu, devout Hindus last month organised an ancient 'fire sacrifice' to protect the state from cyclones and tsunami. Two tonnes of dry chillis were fed into a ritual fire. Those living along the edge of the Indian Ocean will be hoping that the gods have finally been appeased.