Snow, high tide, floods and preventive maintenance

Over the last few days, weeks and months, it seems as though the world has been partly stalled due to unusually harsh weather and the disruption to mobility that we take as a given.

Certain countries, including our own, are experiencing continuous rain, unprecedented floods, mudslides or snow. At this moment, snow has stalled Western Europe’s transport infrastructure. I hope the weather will clear soon, for if not, more airports in Europe will be closed and I may have to remain in the Caucasus for Christmas!

Western Europe – Anything new?

I thought it was only we who took our “year round” reasonably good Sri-Lankan weather of the past, for granted. Many parts of the world, which we ourselves took for granted as “organised and having the technical and financial capacity” to weather any storm as it were, are immobilised.

Snow and Scotland

Certain parts of Scotland, I have memorable sunny photographs of as recently as last year, are paralysed by excessive snow. But this happened last December also, almost two days before Christmas. Scotland recorded the most severe festive weather for 14 years in December 2009, which caused major disruption to Scotland’s transport network.

We might pose a question to them, to inquire when they last upgraded what road and rail engineers would call “preventive maintenance strategies” and whether they revised corresponding financial budgets for more frequent and more extensive maintenance interventions.

How much snow impact reduction technologies has the West, which is well known for its “innovation eco-system,” devised and introduced over the years? If so, how has it been manifested this year? I say this in seriousness, given the incrementally bad weather the West has experienced in recent times, year on year, and what they would have now learned to expect.

Limited resources and opportunity costs

There will, of course, be many in North America and Western Europe who will say that additional investments in maintenance, similar to what is done in Russia or Siberia, where the winters are far harsher, would be a waste of money.

But then we should not talk about the disruption to homes and families; loss of economic life and the priceless loss of lives. Then again, those in Government in those parts of Western Europe may defend themselves on the grounds that resources are limited, have alternative uses and there is an opportunity cost.

Venice and high tide

A few days ago, scenes of familiar places in Italy – in and around Venice where I recently enjoyed strolling around (in the summer of course!) – looked like paddy fields in my village, on a day of very heavy rain. But the water levels in Venice are known to rise when the lagoon rises due to high tide.

Here again last year, Venice’s St. Marks Square looked like a river, on New Year’s Eve and the day after on 1 January 2010. Don’t they have systems in place? As a destination that thrives on tourism, don’t they have the revenue earning capacity to invest in improved measures?

All these, in a sense are levellers for those who take the environment or anything else for granted. The latter, I thought was predominantly, a South Asian trait.

Preparedness measures for Sri Lanka

The recent rains, the worst in 18 years that flooded a good part of our capital Colombo and the country, were unprecedented, and it would not be fair to very readily criticise the authorities or to compare ourselves with developed cities even in the region. It was only a few months ago that the famous shopping districts of Singapore were inundated.

Nevertheless, let us not use these as examples to simply maintain the status quo and perpetuate mediocrity, where we need not do so. This would be self-defeating. We are a capital that is often referred to as a potential financial hub, shipping and aviation hub, or a fashion hub. Singapore or Western Europe do not have to be our benchmarks so that we can derive comfort from their disasters.

If we are to leverage the full potential of the new economic opportunities for domestic and foreign investors, the hitherto unrealised potential of tourism, convention traffic and if we are to be hosts for future film festival awards or sporting events, we may have to address many fundamental issues.

Well before the monsoon seasons, heavy rain or flood forecasts and in order to be in readiness for events such as earth slips, etc., what measures do the RDA, Municipalities and the Railway authorities undertake?

How much pre-emptive maintenance is currently undertaken along the roads and rail tracks prone to damage or obstruction?

Do we have “seasonal” temporary road and rail track maintenance and damage restoration units at selected sites?

Should our Disaster Management Centre and the Meteorological Department develop awareness programmes and simple preparedness measures at national, provincial, individual and community level? (e.g. first aid centres).

What measures are in place to prevent breaches of dams in the Mahaweli?

I recall writing in the Thought Leadership Forum in early 2005 about the need for risk assessments in and around the Mahaweli dams when I learned that the estimate of expenditure for dam maintenance in the Mahaweli was Rs. 300 million, while the allocation annually was only about Rs. 30 million (source – Central Bank of Sri Lanka Annual Report of 2004). I have not had the need to research maintenance expenditure that has either been allocated or estimated over the last five years. However, the CEB (a beneficiary of the Mahaweli waters for the generation of hydro power) has a proprietary interest to contribute funds towards dam maintenance.

Given that there was a dam breach in Pakistan a few years ago, the gap between maintenance expenditure requirements of the Mahaweli dams, and allocations and the accumulated gap or deficit in maintenance intervention expenditure over the years, is naturally of considerable concern to me. I trust that the relevant authorities would study this aspect carefully and perhaps seek and obtain assistance from institutions such as the United Nations, FAO, ADB or the World Bank.

Have we sought technical and financial assistance to undertake rain and flood damage and needs assessments like Pakistan has just done?

Have we sought assistance from the World Bank and the ADB; DFID, JICA; USAID; UN-FAO and similar institutions? I trust most of these institutions and the many other bilateral organisations in Sri Lanka are already on the drawing boards to determine how they can help and perhaps extend existing programmes to do so.

Beyond relief and restoration to defence

The above-mentioned measures are, of course, only a very few thoughts. Our focus, as a nation should not be traditional disaster relief measures of food, drink, clothing and shelter alone, but meaningful measures to restore and or strengthen key infrastructure.

Beyond all that, we need technical and financial assistance to help design and build flood risk reduction and damage mitigation measures, which can be expensive but compellingly necessary. If time permits I intend to share further related thoughts, in next week’s column.