Disaster mitigation; No time to lose

Almost three months have elapsed since the disastrous Cyclone Ditwah swept the country claiming around a thousand lives, including those who are claimed to be missing.

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Those who sacrificed their lives in this calamity taught hundreds of lessons both to the people and to the authorities and some of them had been taught during the similar past disasters and repeated this time as well.

Yes, they taught, yet, did we grasp the gravity of those lessons properly and are we preparing for such future disasters? These are the foremost questions we have to pose to each other and to the authorities responsible. The series of landslides that occurred last week in the central hills a warning for the authorities not to forget responsibilities as they did in the past.

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake while speaking in Parliament after last year’s floods questioned the authorities who permitted the people to build houses in such disaster-prone areas. It is not clear if he meant that all areas hit this time by floods and landslides were disaster-prone areas. If so, relocating people from all these areas is unimaginable. For example, from Hanwella to Peliyagoda, over a kilometer on either side of the Kelani ganga (river) went under water during the floods triggered by Cyclone Ditwah. Is the Government of the view that people from the whole area have to be relocated?