Responding to natural disasters

Geethi Karunaratne

In 1978 the cyclone hit Sri Lanka which devastated the Eastern Province with property damage and life loss. When flood and landslide events affected five districts in the country in 2003, the people were taken by surprise as they were not prepared.

Before and after that there have been numerous other minor disaster events from time to time due to hazards such as floods, landslides, cyclones, tornadoes and other.

It is almost five years since the unexpected and most devastating Tsunami hit our country causing extensive property damage and taking away a huge number of lives. When the tsunami struck on December 26, 2004, there was no legislation for disaster risk management in the country.

Now it is over four years since the Sri Lanka Disaster Management Act was passed in Parliament on May 13, 2005 that helped create confidence among the population to a certain extent.

It is now fitting to look back at the system to see whether Sri Lanka is adequately prepared to respond to natural disasters; whether a culture of safety has been created in the country through disaster risk reduction and mitigation, preparedness and awareness; and whether all concerned including the politicians, professionals, administrators, civil society and the communities are committed to ensure that the provisions of the Act are properly implemented to create such a culture of safety.

As we remember when the tsunami struck on December 26, 2004 people in Sri Lanka did not know what was happening, they were oblivious whether it is a local occurrence in the sea or a countrywide phenomenon. People moved towards the sea shore to see the phenomenon of the outgoing tide and then got struck by the incoming wave.

If there was awareness among the population about tsunami and if a dissemination mechanism were in place locally, there could have been a warning given for the people to act. There was a time gap of nearly three hours between the time Indonesia was affected and the time that Sri Lanka was affected and also the coastline was hit by the wave at different times. Even within Sri Lanka, the Eastern shores were hit first, which gradually spread to North, South and finally the West.

The country simply did not have an early warning and dissemination system. Not only there was no mechanism for assessing the situation and the probability and the pattern of the spreading of the occurrence which struck one place of the country, but the authorities too were taken by surprise. In short this was a completely new previously unheard of phenomenon that was taking place.

On May 13, 2005 the Sri Lanka Disaster Management Act No. 13 was passed in the Parliament. At present this subject has been listed as a function under Disaster Management and Human Rights Ministry.

As provided for in the Act, a high level National Council for Disaster Management and a Disaster Management Center (DMC) has been established. The Act includes in addition to natural hazards, some man made hazards and technological hazards, such as air raids; nuclear disaster; urban and forest fire; an industrial hazard; an air hazard; a maritime an explosion; civil or internal strife; chemical accident; radiological emergency; and oil spills including inland and marine oil spills.

Legal framework for disaster management

DMC is the lead agency for implementing activities related to all phases of Disaster Risk Management (DRM) in the country under the guidance of the Minister and the National Council. These activities are carried out in coordination with relevant stakeholder ministries, national and provincial level government and private agencies, civil society, non-governmental organizations, community based organizations and the communities.

All sub national level activities are carried out through the District Disaster Management Coordinating Units that have been established as part of the DMC structure. A National Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) and District EOCs have also been established except in a few districts, where these are planned to be established at the earliest possible instance.

The vision of the DMC is safer communities and sustainable development in Sri Lanka and the Broad Mission is creating a culture of safety among communities and the nation at large, through systematic management of natural, technological and man-made disaster risks.

A roadmap

The National Disaster Management Policy and the National Disaster Management Plan have already been drafted based on the broad policy as provided for in the Act and awaiting approval of the National Council for Disaster Management.

A roadmap for Disaster Risk Management in Sri Lanka was developed immediately after the establishment of the DMC through a consultative process with the

involvement of all stakeholder, to serve as a guiding document to achieve the vision of disaster management in Sri Lanka. This roadmap included various projects and activities that have to be carried out for achieving an effective DRM system in the country, including disaster risk reduction projects to be undertaken once and other activities such as development of different types of plans at national and sub national levels, awareness programs and community based activities. These activities are generally long term activities spread over a few years.

The Roadmap was meant to serve as a guiding document for DMC and all the stakeholders in disaster risk management activities for the next ten years to help donors to identify projects of their interest for funding; and also to guide NGOs and INGOs in identifying ways and means of their involvement in the respective activities for disaster risk management in the country. Already selected activities of this ten year plan have been commenced and in progress.

Hazard forecasting

A hazard forecasting, early warning and dissemination system has been established in the country presently. Hazard Forecasting and Early Warning System with respect to different identified hazards has already been established in coordination with early warning agencies within and outside Sri Lanka. The Dissemination System in highly vulnerable districts is coordinated by the DMC involving the District, Divisional and GN administrations and the Police, with the Armed Forces in readiness if the need arises?

Actions have already been taken to review performance of some technical agencies mandated with early warning with respect to different hazards and measures have already been taken or are being taken to remedy the identified shortcomings.

For hazards such as earthquakes, tsunamis, adverse weather conditions and cyclones the relevant agencies work in constant coordination with the respective regional and international warning centres. An Ocean Observation Centre (OOC) has been established at National Aquatic Resources Research and Development Agency (NARA), which is operational on 24/7 basis monitoring, gathering and analyzing real time and near real time ocean conditions in the region for detecting ocean based disasters including tsunami?

The system of communication from national level to sub national levels or other specific identified locations which used to be mainly through the Police communication system and the normal telephone systems are being improved with a new radio communication system scheduled to be completed shortly. Standard Disaster Early Warning signals and messages have been formulated and agreed upon by all stakeholder agencies, reflecting the magnitude of the event, the level of alert and the clear message as to how the community members are expected to act on receiving the message.

These are regularly being tested in different districts/areas with mock drills and exercises so that identified lapses and shortcomings can be identified. Personnel and agencies such as SLRC, NGOs, LA officials, GNs, local Police, CBOs and volunteers are being involved in the warning dissemination activities. In the process they are also being trained to undertake such dissemination activities and the communities are also made aware of.

Disaster Risk Management

This actually involves the whole cycle of DRM activities ranging through long term mitigation for risk reduction; preparedness; early warning and dissemination; emergency response; emergency operations after a disaster; training and education and public awareness; to community based activities.

In each of these activities, in turn there are many different categories of activities, some of which are included in the Roadmap and are already being implemented by DMC with the related agencies in high risk areas on a priority basis depending on the proneness.

DMC implements all sub national level activities through its District Disaster Management Coordinating Units that have been established as a part of its structure.

Activities have already begun in the Northern and Eastern provinces also and will progress as the situation permits.

Long term mitigation for risk reduction: DMC has commenced various activities depending on hazard proneness, such as hazard mapping and risk assessment; information and data collection; building technology; the DMC website, long term disaster risk reduction activities; specific risk reduction projects to reduce specific identified risks that can cause future disasters; DRR integration in development and long-term action planning, which are already at different stages of progress undertaken on a priority basis. Research and analysis too forms a part of this broad activity.

Early warning and dissemination: Early warning activities by different technical stakeholders responsible for different hazards; forecasting and issuing information about impending disasters; receiving of forecasting and early warning by DMC through the systems in place; dissemination of warning involving the District, Divisional and GN administrations and the Police and Armed Forces.

Preparedness and emergency operations in case of a disaster:

Emergency operations by the DMC is carried out in coordination with related national and provincial agencies, district and divisional administrations and the police with the Armed Forces being involved if the need arises in case of severe occurrences. Coordination of sharing of resources as and when required by different levels of administration and different agencies is one of the main responsibilities of DMC.

DMC has undertaken to facilitate, issue guidelines, coordinate, direct and monitor preparation of Disaster Preparedness and Response Plans at provincial, district, local authority, division and Grama Niladhari levels to ensure preparedness for timely and effective response, relief, speedy recovery etc.

National Emergency Operations Plan for responding to disasters of national scale and also to support provincial and district level administrations in case of local disasters is the responsibility of the DMC.

Training, Education and Public Awareness: DMC facilitates, coordinates and directly implements where necessary and/or monitors all activities related to;

* Training - disaster risk reduction related training at all levels. This will include training of officials at all levels as well as training for emergency responders, SAR parties, first aid groups, volunteer groups as identified in disaster response plans at all levels (DMC role mostly coordinating).

* Education - integration of disaster risk reduction aspect in school curricula, university other tertiary education curricula as appropriate.

* Public Awareness (Social Marketing) - Programs for officials at all levels, school children and community level.

Community Based Disaster Risk Management (CBDRM): DMC promotes CBDRM in collaboration with NGOs, CBOs and government/local government Institutions.

Some activities are formation of community disaster response volunteers and establishing community teams for DRM: registration and maintenance of a database of volunteers; maintaining volunteer skills through training and motivation; establishing CBDRM resource centres in each district; and community preparedness and mitigation projects by community DRM teams in high risk villages. There is progress to different extents in these activities.