REAL DISASTER: MISSED EARLY WARNING ALERTS

Mounting public frustration targets the Sri Lankan government's response, from the lack of a relief-and-rescue mechanism to failure to declare a national emergency or issue timely disaster updates

- DILRUKSHI HANDUNNETTI

Due to a weak response, the government is now criticised for adding to Cyclone Ditwah’s trail of destruction, through omissions that could have contributed to increased fatalities.

The majority of disaster warnings being issued only in Sinhala are not a communication error: they are a governance disaster steeped in language discrimination that denied lifesaving information at a critical time. The Tamil Guardian first claimed that despite the severity of the cyclone, people in the island’s cyclone-battered North and East could not use the information as the state continuously issued almost all emergency communications exclusively in Sinhala or English. “Even official warnings shared by ministries and the DMC at a press conference held at the defence ministry were issued without translation, with Tamil completely excluded and only occasional updates available in English,” the Tamil Guardian claimed.