Natural disasters cause for 36 per cent poverty

Mohammed Naalir

COLOMBO: Disaster Management and Human Rights Ministry Secretary P.Dias Amarasinghe yesterday said a 36% of the population have been subjected to penury due to the increase in natural disasters in Sri Lanka-up from 23%.

He said disaster impacts not only occlude economic development of the country but also cause untold hardship to the day-to-day activities of the people and creates social, physical and environmental problems.

Addressing the launching of the "Historical Disaster Information System in Sri Lanka" (HDISSL) at Hotel Galadari, Dias Amarasinghe said that the poor community who live in marginal areas, cities and urban areas were the most vulnerable to disasters and frequently affected by disasters.

"Disaster causes bad climatic changes. Development work is jeopardised and causes large scale loss of life".

Continuing he said disaster was part of life and even developed Western countries were not immune from it.

"Floods, drought, soil erosion, land slides and tsunami are considered disaster. The Historical Disaster Information System launched today could pave the way of mitigating future disasters. This was a collection of 32 year experience of disasters," he said adding that it would help planners and policy makers in preparing for disasters.

Assistant Resident representative, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Dr. Ananda Mallawatantri said the HDISSL is the result of studies conducted during the past 32 years on disaster experience, the mitigation programmes to be carried out and the expenditures on disaster management works and the strategies to face future disasters.

Disaster management is a key subject in the world as every community face disasters and nobody can escape natural disasters.

He said UNDP has a responsibility towards disaster mitigation programme as a Development Agency. Although disasters are unavoidable the mitigation programmes are very essential. If the mitigation programme was not carried out successfully in a proper manner it would lead to the destruction of economy.

He said currently France, Sweden and Korea have made contribution finance assistance for disaster mitigation programme.