Insurance and more for disaster preparedness
Rasika Somarathna
The Disaster Management Ministry is planning to introduce a special
insurance scheme for homes in identified disaster prone areas to protect
property owners against potential losses during a natural calamity.
The insurance is to be extended to home owners whose houses are
located within identified risk zones subject to recurring natural
disasters such as floods, earth slips, quakes etc.
An official said the insurance premiums would be borne by the
ministry. A proposal in this regard has already been formulated.
Disaster Management Minister Mahinda Amaraweera recently said his
ministry is prepared to demonstrate earthquake resistant construction
techniques for those planning to build houses or other structures in
earthquake prone areas.
Minister Amaraweera said his ministry will also introduce several
other measures to lessen the impact of natural disasters in the coming
year. Another such measure, according to the minister is the upgrading
of the Meteorology Department. He said plans were afoot to install
latest equipment available in the international market to upgrade the
capacity of Meteorology Department and improve its prediction
capability. The Doppler radar installed at the summit of Gongala
Mountain in Deniyaya at Rs 400 million too will begin operations from
next year, he said.
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