The country should have a national plan and policy to mitigate disasters and moreover to protect valuable lives, National Council of Sri Lanka (NCSL) Chairman Ven.Athuraliye Rathana Thera said.
A national plan is vital for disaster mitigation. But as an outcome of not having such a national plan or mechanism in the field of disaster mitigation, the country lost more than 200 lives by the last adverse weather situation, the Thera said.
The Thera said so addressing media yesterday in Colombo.
Ven. Rathana Thera said that if there is a national plan in disaster mitigation, many of the lives could be saved. “Therefore, the National Council of Sri Lanka will implement national level disaster mitigation plan within the next six months period,” the Thera said. Addressing the media, Ashoka Abeysinghe of the NCSL said that we could taken more effective preacutionary measures against the recent disaster as this was not a random incident.
“But, as there isn’t such a disaster mitigation plan, we could not protect the country from the disaster,” he said.
“We don’t have a way to store the large volume of rain water. Unlike in the past, there aren’t many areas to store or collect rain water. The country’s temperature has gone up by 1 C when compared with the 1980s” he said. “Therefore there should be a national policy in disaster mitigation and adaption, Abeysinghe said. Chris Dharmakirti of the NCSL said that as there was such a disaster mitigation mechanism, people were not informed properly about the vulnerability.
“When the sluice gates of the Kukulegamga Reservoir were opened by the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) engineers that message was not communicated to the people of the area. If there is a disaster mitigation mechanism, people of the area should be given enough time to save their properties and lives. The people should have been informed by the Disaster Management Centre when the sluice gates were opened,” he said.
He said that the country has conducted enough studies and evaluations on disaster management and mitigation but the findings of those studies had not been put into practice. “The suggestions and directives of various studies have not been utilised to mitigate disasters. Those findings have not been put into practice in order to mitigate disasters,” Dharmakirti said.