21 December 2005

Matara, Sri Lanka: The rains this September flooded low-lying areas in Ratnapura, an inland district in western Sri Lanka, but the residents were quickly evacuated before flooding and landslides could pose a threat.

There was a plan, and it had worked. Although Ratnapura was not affected by the tsunami, it has had its share of deadly disasters, and the district, as so many areas of Sri Lanka, has worked to institute disaster preparedness measures in the time since the tsunami.

Samanthika Ekanayake, a UN Volunteer has been working with local officials and community leaders since her arrival in early December 2004 to design new plans. In meetings, she says, participants made it clear that some areas of the district should be evacuated due to previous catastrophic floods and mudslides.

“They told us their concerns, and what was logical and what wasn’t,” says Samanthika. “By pre-identifying these areas in the plan, we were able to do something that we never did before—get people out before the problem got out of control,” she says.

Tsunami overwhelms disaster planning
Ramya Siriwansa, a UN Volunteer who has been assisting local districts prepare for disasters since 2003, points out that previous plans fell short of being able to handle the sheer force of the tsunami or coordinating the massive international assistance that poured in after the disaster.

"When floods threatened thousands of people in Batticaloa, the plan worked," says Ramya. "The rising water triggered the early warning system, which led to the evacuation of people in low-lying areas. The tsunami? Well, it was just too much, too fast."

In May 2005, the Sri Lankan government passed a new Disaster Management Act that provides a national framework for disaster risk management. UN Volunteers and UNDP are working with the government to support further development of disaster preparedness and response plans in all districts and divisions.

Strengthening coordination
In some affected districts, UN Volunteers were the sole contact for relief coordination when the tsunami occurred, and they were responsible for collating information—number of injured, fatalities and infrastructure damage—and dispatching back to the Centre for National Operations in Colombo.

“In the beginning, we had no effective way to communicate. As a result, everyone was just doing their own thing,” says UN Volunteer Fahim Mohamed from the Ampara district office.

To improve coordination and information, Fahim worked to help government authorities organize committees dealing with specific needs, such as education, health and housing. The committees have allowed government officials, community representatives and NGOs to share information and improve coordination.