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Defence Secretary Maj. Gen. Kamal Gunaratne (Retd.), emphasising the urgent need to provide a holistic and precautionary approach to disaster management, said bringing disaster management stakeholders within the purview of the Defence Ministry would facilitate coordination and cohesiveness across all levels.
He said disaster management was not a process which could be tackled in isolation but needed careful coordination and cooperation between multiple stakeholders to be successful in any emergency situation.
“Being cognisant of this vital need, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has made the decision to synergise all these capabilities which were under different establishments, under the Ministry of Defence, to achieve efficiency and effectiveness as a cohesive outfit to face any disaster situation in the future,” he said.
Maj. Gen. Gunaratne said that with this latest step, the Government would be able to place greater focus on enhancing resilience and empowering people to take appropriate action during and after a disaster.
Referring to the 10 policy decisions - including sustainable environmental management, the development of natural resources and a society based on technology which are all directly linked to disaster resilience – listed by President Rajapaksa, he said all stakeholders urgently needed to come together to achieve the desired efforts of resilience.
Maj. Gen. Gunaratne, who was the Chief Guest at the 10th Annual Research Symposium of the National Building Research Organisation (NBRO) held in Colombo yesterday, said that even though people were not immune to the destructive impact of the forces of nature, the impact could be reduced when communities were better prepared to face natural calamities.
He said two natural disasters – the Meeriyabedda landslide in the Badulla District and the Samasarakanda landslide in the Kegalle District - and their flow-on effect over the last few years offered reminders of the need for local communities to be prepared for natural disasters to mitigate their impact.
“There is an urgent need for a precautionary approach with a proper understanding of the risk and a need for a cohesive approach which is capable of ensuring much more prescient, precise and holistic risk governance in the future,” he stressed.
Recalling the assistance extended by the Tri- Forces and the Police through disaster response and the provision of relief to affected communities, he said the troops were not only engaged in disaster management but had also led the rehabilitation and reconstruction process.
According to Maj. Gen. Gunaratne, resilience to a disaster had been a prime concern in the past but in today’s context, vulnerability was not merely associated with disaster but also with environmental, social, health, economic and other related issues.
“Climate change makes extreme weather effects more likely than ever before. The average temperature of the globe has already risen by 1°C. Heat waves, droughts, floods and violent storms could become much more common in the decades to come, making disaster risk reduction an even more urgent priority,” he said.
Maj. Gen. Gunaratne said the construction of physical infrastructure, such as transport, energy systems and commercial and residential buildings, had not taken into account associated disaster risks.
“Resilience-based sustainable development must be comprehensive in nature, and it requires integrated responses to complex challenges and respect for national ownership and leadership,” he said, adding that the NBRO had done tremendous work to mitigate disaster while introducing guidelines and providing guidance through its research and innovation.
Appreciating the contribution and support provided by international stakeholders during disaster situations, he said it was vital to work together in a more collaborative manner when managing disasters, which were challenging and required modern technology and innovation.
He also called for greater collaboration between institutions, including the NBRO, working in the humanitarian and development fields to assist communities affected by disasters to rebuild and cope with future disasters.
Forecasting disaster
Norwegian Ambassador Trine Jøranli Eskedal said the seven-year-long cooperation between the Norwegian Geo-technical Institute and the NBRO had facilitated the introduction of advanced Norwegian technology such as utilising ground-penetrating radars, using drones to look for landslides, building warning systems and effectively conducting ground water continuation assessments.
“During the last few weeks we have heard that there has been the loss of several lives while a considerable number of people were affected by the adverse weather conditions which led to floods and landslides in some parts of the island. In many cases, it is possible to forecast natural disasters and early action is more effective than responding after the disaster,” she said.
Ambassador Eskedal said there was a clear connection between the need to address climate change and prevent climate-related and other natural disasters and the need for humanitarian efforts.
She noted that it was the poorest and most vulnerable segments of society that were most at risk from natural disasters, in particular women and children.
“Experiences tell us that early warning systems based on landslide monitoring and predictions are most economical in landslide risk reductions because prevention is significantly lower than the price of reparation,” Eskedal said, adding that technology used in landslide identification could analyse, monitor, predict and reduce risks while enhancing sustainable disaster management.
She said this year’s theme for the symposium ‘Equitable Resilience’ was important and there was a need to make fundamental change for transformation.
“Governments, natural and social scientists, engineers, lawyers, policymakers, businesses, NGOs, civil society and all individual have to work together to have a critical resilience and reach sustainable forms for the global challenges of this era,” Eskedal said, adding that trans-disciplinary research cooperation was critical in this matter.
The two-day symposium showcases NBRO’s innovations – a geotechnical guideline for safe construction of building foundations, a technical guideline on building demolition work in Sri Lanka, a handbook on test methods and specifications for material and product section and an air quality monitoring network - under its research and development program.
NBRO’s Director General Dr. Asiri Karunawardena said that having realised the complexities in the multiplicity approach by the NBRO and of building disaster resilience in a country and completing a multitude of related research, the NBRO had decided to hold the this year’s annual research symposium on the theme of ‘Equitable Resilience’.
“Building a better and a more resilient State has become a strong disaster recovery aim today. In the present context, vulnerability to disaster as well as vulnerability associated with environmental, social, health, economic and other related issues are considered just as important. It’s simple to note that adaptability to disaster is also a strategy in living with disasters,” he said.
Spelling out NBRO’s mitigation strategy for high-risk, moderate and low-risk locations, he said people in high-risk locations would be relocated and early warnings would be given to people in low-risk locations while taking some mitigative action to save the lives of people living in moderate risk locations.
According to Dr. Karunawardena, one-fifth of land in Sri Lanka, which houses one-third of the country’s people, was prone to landslides.
“The NBRO has the responsibility to mitigate or reduce the risk of landslides,” he said, speaking about the NBRO’s proposed World Bank-, Asian Development Bank- and JICA-funded comprehensive disaster mitigation program.
The keynote address was delivered by the Director of Think Lab of the University of Salford, Prof. Terrance Fernando.
