Cyclone Ditwah Delay in damage assessment cost SL crucial aid: UNP

By Yohan Perera   

The UNP said yesterday that the delay in assessing the loss of lives and property damages of cyclone Ditwah by the authorities has caused a delay in obtaining further foreign aid for rebuilding the nation after the disaster.   

UNP Chairman Wajira Abeywardana told a media briefing that Sri Lanka has lost an opportunity of receiving more foreign aid after cyclone Ditwah because of the delay on the part of the authorities to assess the total loss of lives and property damages caused by the disaster.   

“The failure to follow mechanisms that were put into place after the 2004 tsunami should have been used after cyclone Ditwah hit the nation. Loss of life and other losses were assessed within 72 hours after the tsunami struck back in 2004. However, such a success could not have been seen after the cyclone this year,” he said.   

“Assessing loss of lives and other damages caused by natural disasters is important. It is this data that Sri Lanka has to present to foreign countries to obtain aid for rebuilding. Data pertaining to households and other information are kept by Grama Niladaris, divisional secretariats and district secretariats. One could get data from one of these offices. One could get from a divisional secretariat if the Grama Niladari office goes underwater, and from the district secretariat if the divisional secretariat goes underwater. Also, the government should have made the Ministry of Home Affairs run a night shift just after the cyclone to collect data on losses. Also, the number of deaths could have been assessed if a hotline had been introduced and asked those who went missing to dial those numbers. The number of deaths could have been assessed within 72 hours if such a hotline had been introduced. Quick assessments would have brought foreign aid much earlier,” he added.   

Also, he said effective water management could have saved many lives. “The water capacity of each reservoir is stored in computers in the relevant institutions, which manage them. Proper monitoring of reservoirs would have helped in managing water in the reservoirs,” he said.   

He said disaster response would have been effective if forces were connected to the state machinery through a chief of defence staff and if there were proper coordination between the cabinet, Parliament and political parties.