dailynews
 ONLINE


OTHER PUBLICATIONS


OTHER LINKS

Marriage Proposals
Classified
Government Gazette

Posers erupting from the landslides

The bad weather may be easing off in the hill country but this is very small consolation considering the vast human suffering the natural devastation in the usually "salubrious, cool climes of Nuwara Eliya" has left behind.

As reported, some 15,000 persons have been rendered homeless in the Walapane and Hanguranketha areas and the immediate and most daunting challenge is to house them and ensure their physical and emotional security.

Hopefully, the public response will be positive and quick to the Estate Infrastructure and Livestock Development Minister's request that building material be provided for housing the homeless and the destitute. Apparently, there are scores of persons out there who do not have a roof over their heads.

If this situation continues, it could be considered an indictment on the rest of the body politic. Therefore, the vital needs of the landslide-affected must be met without further delay. All support systems must be activated to enable the homeless to secure shelter and comfort.

We call on the State authorities in particular to spare no pains to succour the afflicted. In this their hour of need the affected sections should enjoy the assurance that their appeals for protection and help are not in vain.

A prominent feature of the recent devastation in the hills was the frequency of the landslides and their vast scale. In the recent history of natural calamities in Sri Lanka, these horrors have been among the worst. They have also tended to concentrate in the Nuwara Eliya district.

The issue for geologists is to ascertain why this is so. Have man's destructive acts been on the increase in the area in question? Is man's exploitation of nature reaching critical proportions in Sri Lanka? These questions need to be probed thoroughly if we are to escape natural calamities of the scope and kind which gripped the central hills.

Landslides and mud slides are the result of what has come to be known as "unplanned development". Human settlements and plantations, for instance, are established in inappropriate geographical locations and environmentally-sensitive areas and these are considered prime trigger factors in landslides and avalanches.

All this is common knowledge now and one would have expected the necessary safeguards to have been taken against the occurrence of such "natural" devastation. However, the indications are that the rising cry against the unconscionable exploitation of nature has fallen on deaf ears.

Traced to its roots, this crisis has its origins in the abuse and misuse of power at particularly the local and provincial levels. Humans cannot establish settlements just anywhere. This is particularly so in the case of hilly regions.

If small human settlements are being established in environmentally hazardous locations, it is certainly happening with the connivance and knowledge of local officials. And if officials are turning a blind eye on these irregularities it is on account of their receiving gratifications of some kind or on account of their being prevailed upon to comply with the irregularities.

Therefore, the problem boils down to just and ethically-faultless administration. May this line of reasoning open the eyes of the State.

Saddam was hanged for killing 146, Prabhakaran who killed thousands is protected

Iraqi President Saddam Hussain was sentenced to death for ordering the assassination of 146 Shi'ite Muslims during his reign. When compared with Prabhakaran, one may wonder whether Saddam was a murderer. Nevertheless, the International Court Martial or the World Powers never entertain a similar thought where Prabhakaran is concerned.

Full Story

National Dress suits our country, climate and culture

The British who subjugated the whole of Sri Lanka in the year 1815 took various measures to suppress national resurgence. They broke the backbone of the peasant by confiscating the lands under the Waste Lands Ordinance.

Full Story

 

EMAIL |   PRINTABLE VIEW | FEEDBACK

Gamin Gamata - Presidential Community & Welfare Service
www.icicibank.lk
www.srilankans.com
Sri Lanka
Kapruka - www.lanka.info
www.canreach.com
www.defence.lk
www.helpheroes.lk/
www.peaceinsrilanka.org
www.army.lk
www.news.lk

| News | Editorial | Financial | Features | Political | Security | Sport | World | Letters | Obituaries | News Feed |

Produced by Lake House Copyright � 2007 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.

Comments and suggestions to : Web Editor