Disasters: Sri Lanka as a country within the Asian Region is now very much prone to disasters ever since the 2004 December 26 - Boxing Day Tsunami catastrophe and the public psyche is now being conditioned to accept large scale natural disasters following this cataclysmic event.

Natural disasters like floods, cyclones and landslides are nothing new to Sri Lanka. The year 2003 marked the highest number of deaths reported from flood and landslide disasters. In that year 235 deaths were recorded and 35,000 homes damaged. But Sri Lanka had not suffered a catastrophe of the nature which the Tsunami wrought, 2000 years after the tidal wave first lashed the country according to available records.

Now it is the rainy season and some parts of the country have already experienced floods. While the North/North Central Provinces cry for rain, media reported the havoc and devastation caused by recent rain in other parts of the country.

The heavy rains in Provinces other than the North and East, caused heavy casualties from floods, landslides and earth-slips. Loss of life too was reported.

Newspapers also reported the action taken by the government and the Social Services Ministry with regard to contingency plans for the displaced victims of floods, earthslips etc. Thus this has become an annual event, or an event which occurs several times within an year at intervals.

A close examination would show that a colossal amount of funds are allocated to provide assistance to those who are displaced by floods. But once the calamity fades away from the public mind we are back to square one and the people return to the very same places or to places nearby where the tragedy occurred and always `opt' to live in danger.

It has become a habit for these victims to `live in danger prone areas' with the expectation of state assistance at every turn, without engaging in any livelihood. There seems to be sections who wish for such natural disasters to visit them short of taking away their lives so that they could `live on the mercy' of the state and other humanitarian organisations that come to their assistance.

The State on its part seems to be complacent with what is being done and close the chapter, then and there with no plans to mitigate the danger and put an end to this sort assistance once and for all.

We have witnessed many natural disasters occur and a tendency to forget the matter once the excitement dies down.

In the Western Province, Colombo and Kalutara districts, Sabaragamuwa Province, Ratnapura district, Central Province Nuwara Eliya are areas constantly in danger of either floods or landslides. We have seen people invading pavements on Kelani bridge when there are floods. But can we be sure that those people who come to the "Kelani Palama" are genuinely those who were affected?

During the drought in Hambantota, the government, Voluntary organisations and civil society got together and dispatched assistance to that part of the country. No one could be sure if those who received assistance were the actual victims.

When there is landslide or earth-slip people are evacuated. They are provided not only with temporary shelter but also food. But how long could we do this? The country is aware of the disaster threats through experience. But what have we done to prevent the recurrence of this danger.

What preventive or safety methods have we adopted? What the governments in power did or is doing is merely to provide assistance without drawing up any long term plan vis a vis disaster prone areas.

The people are aware of this. That is why in the midst of those who really suffer the consequence of natural disasters, unscrupulous elements come to benefit. When the families who faced the tsunami disaster were to be provided with help and compensation, it was alleged that politics made its entry and those who were no where near the tsunami hit areas were given state assistance courtesy the politicians. This meant that `dirty politics' entered the fray and the deserving were left out.

It is time the Government draws up long term plans to cope with natural disasters. (Some of these disasters are man made by working against nature). Like in Japan and other disaster prone countries can't we introduce `movable houses' specially in the areas prone to earth-slips or landslides.

A survey should be carried out in these areas to know for sure the number of families living in the disaster-prone areas so that when disasters strike, the state would be in a position to locate the families and provide assistance without it getting into wrong hands. Steps should be taken to avoid people building their houses in danger-prone areas and provide them land in much safer places.

This will prevent people who try to grab everything from the state playing the `mercy-card' to obtain undeserving aid. This will help the government to know the exact number of families in need of help during a calamity and help save colossal funds from going down the drain.

The immediate need is to draw up a national plan. With the experience of the tsunami, Parliament passed the Disaster Management Act, established the Disaster Management Centre and a Road Map was formulated for Disaster Management. Now that a Management Ministry too, has been set up, obtaining the assistance of geologists, the Ministry should be able to identify, locate areas likely to be affected by floods, earth-slips and landslides triggered by heavy rains.

It is also necessary to purge the people of their charity mind sets. Their minds should be exorcised of the idea that the Social Service Department will always come to their assistance and hence they could willy nilly move into areas of potential natural disasters with a view to obtaining state assistance.

It is my humble view that we should create an environment where we need not have a social service department at all. But a system where the people are helped to stand on their own feet even after a disaster without depending on the state. This could be done by having a long term plan drawn up by the Disaster Management Ministry working in collaboration with the Social Services and other related Ministries.

Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe who represents the Kalutara district I am sure knows his people best and he is in a position to draw up a sustainable plan that would save the country and save the people from natural disasters by carefully studying what the countries faced with similar situations have done.