Cyclone Ditwah - a wakeup call to the government

In the government’s favour however, the first round of payment of relief funds to the public went off without a problem

With a ferocity rarely seen in this country, Cyclone Ditwah hit the country for three days. Our much maligned Met department after a long time got its predictions right.It had begun announcing the landfall of Cyclone Ditwah from two to three days earlier. Unfortunately,  like most of us, our government too took the prediction with the proverbial ‘pinch of salt’ and was caught with its pants down.

Within days, the storm triggered lethal landslides, unprecedented flooding, and collapsed basic infrastructure. It left in its wake a trail of dead and missing.

According to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP),  over 2 million persons were adversely affected including  275,000 were children. The report added waters from the cyclone inundated more than 1.1 million hectares of land – almost 20 percent of the country’s land area.

Over the years, this newspaper has been harping on the necessity to take measures to mitigate land/mudslides by taking measures to mitigate the washing  away of topsoil in the hill country which cause the silting of riverbeds and leads to twice yearly floods and landslides in the hilly areas of the country.

For instance,  last year during the Southwest Monsoon between May to June 2024, Disaster Management Centre (DMC) reported significant damage from heavy rainfall, leading to floods and numerous landslides. More than 281,000 people were affected across 23 districts between May and June 2024. Over 8,000 people were evacuated to 122 shelters. Approximately 16,000 houses sustained damage, with around 80 completely destroyed.

Death, landslides, flooding, damage to infrastructure are not new to this country. It happens twice a year. What is wrong is that despite having received independence 78 years ago, we have still not been able to even mitigate the damage caused by the floods.

The NPP government came into power with a mandate based on professionalism and the restoration of public faith in institutions. It  claimed it was completely different to its political predecessors, whom it accused of being corrupt,  inefficient and not  far thinking in planning.

Yet though when Cyclone Ditwah hit Lanka, the government did not appear to have made any plans to meet the contingency.

The cyclone and the havoc it wrought will  be discussed in parliament and people’s suffering will become material for political debate and a means of scoring political points. We will be treated to members of government and the opposition pointing fingers at each other and attempting to lay blame at each other’s feet.

Rather than in the past, where governments tended to sweep problems under the carpet and attempted to wash their hands of blame, it will be good if government answers the uncomfortable questions which will be thrown at them during the parliamentary debate. The Government needs come clean with the public by admitting it’s shortcomings. 

The present regime needs to show the masses of people who voted for them in large numbers that they are ready to accept blame for their errors. That in this way they differ from their predecessors.

The Government failed to recognise the severity of the storm which hit the country. The people now know this. No amount of blaming bureaucrats will change this situation. Our present rulers presented themselves as professional, but at the crucial hours there was no sign of anticipatory action, planning or rapid mobilisation.

The various government departments called on people to be vigilant and to move to safer places. The call for people to be vigilant  led to crowds of people rushing to river banks to check if the rivers were about to overflow.

The need of the hour is not only to have a plan for evacuation but to make it known to the public. Tovernment must also put in place plans to mitigate disasters before they happen.

The health sector however is in dire straits with many medical officers having emigrated. Patients complained of being treated rudely.

In the government’s favour however, the first round of payment of relief funds to the public went off without a problem. Victims were not kept standing in long queues to receive it. People were also treated with respect by officials in charge of distribution of relief material.