Disaster, risk, and insurance

By Shabiya Ali Ahlam

Asian Alliance Insurance PLC (AAI) in collaboration with the Disaster Management Centre (DSM) on Tuesday hosted a prolific seminar under the theme ‘Disaster, Risk and Insurance’ to its non-life insurance sales and technical staff.

The effort between the two institutions being a beneficial Public-Private Partnership (PPP), the objective of this tie-up was to train AAI staffs on the policies, programs, administrative actions and operations undertaken by the DMC to address a natural or man-made disaster.

Furthermore, the unique partnership is also aimed at raising awareness among the public through the AAI sales force on the need to address disaster management, means of minimising risk exposure, and providing adequate protection to their life as well as their assets.

While resource persons of the seminar were DMC Consultant U.W.L. Chandradasa and Litigation and Research Development Acting Director Anoja Seneviratne who spoke on the topics of ‘Disaster Risk Analysis, Evaluation Management and Transferring,’ and ‘Concepts and Terminology of Disaster Management,’ present at the seminar along with other heads of the insurance company were AAI CEO/Director Ramal Jasinghe, DMC Director General Gamini Hettiarachchi, and Civil Engineering Department University of Moratuwa Lecturer Professor Samantha Hettiarachchi.

Recalling incidents of natural disaster that had occurred in Sri Lanka in the recent times due to fluctuating weather conditions, Jasinghe stressed that less than 2% of residences in the country were protected from disaster management via insurance. Haunted by the fact that the majority of individuals are unaware of the risks that prevail in their backyard, he said that apart from doing business, “we aim at providing responsible insurance at a competitive price”. During his speech, Jasinghe took the opportunity to highlight that the insurance industry, as a whole, had paid claims worth over Rs. 1 billion over the past three months.

Professor Hettiarachchi, who is also the Chairperson of the Risk Assessment Working Group of the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning System Project, gave few words of advice for AAI based on his 30 odd years experience in the arena of disaster management. “Insurance companies should prioritise their involvement in risk management to avoid disaster management,” he said.

Professor Hettiarachchi educated the audience of how fatal incidences such as the tsunami in Japan in 2011, which also resulted in a deadly nuclear crisis, could have been avoided if only serious attention was paid to management of risks.

Meanwhile, DMC Director General Gamini Hettiarachchi spoke in detail about the plans and measures taken by the Sri Lankan Government to reduce the impact experienced by people and their properties when disaster strikes.

With DMC having incorporated capacity building programs and awareness generating sessions into its agenda, along with AAI, well-illustrated and reader-friendly leaflets and booklets will be distributed among the general public to spread the message of disaster management and ways of recovering from it.

Pix by Lasantha Kumara