22nd Select Committee Meeting - 7 June 2005

The Select Committee held its 22nd meeting with representatives from the Colombo Municipal Council as well as Provincial Council members from each district. Mahinda Samarasinghe, the Chairperson of the Select Committee explained the role the Select Committee plays in both formulating and recommending certain policies through the Natural Disaster bill. He stated that policy makers cannot centralize decisions that need to be made by relevant authorities on the field. Each district faces unique risks that need to be looked into by the people who can provide expertise in those fields. For example, all Provincial Councils need to have a disaster management plan, a storage of dry rations, medicines and also a fire engine truck and ambulance.

A representative of the Sabaragamuwa Provincial Council stated that the province was vulnerable to floods and landslides, had a high population and needed a pre-preparedness plan. He also stated that they diverted their resources to help Hambantota and Galle during the tsunami and were now facing a short fall.

A representative of the Negombo Municipal Council stressed the importance of being warned early about a tsunami. He stated that the disaster Sri Lanka faced last December was an eye opener to other problems - the lack of resources and the unpreparedness on all levels of governance when dealing with natural disasters.

The Mayor of Colombo thanked the Select Committee for giving them a forum to speak about the system, what it lacks and what it needs. He stated that Colombo had an emergency preparedness plan even before the tsunami but reiterated the need for investments and resources. For instance, the Colombo Municipal Council received a fire engine after five years but had no investment to upgrade the equipment. The main challenge the city of Colombo has to face is the lack of resources corresponding with the need to develop the emergency preparedness plans already in place.

The representative of the Nuwara Eliya Provincial Council stated that the main natural disasters in the area were forest fires and earth slips but they had only one Backhoe metre to use.

The representative of the Hambantota Provincial Council stated that the main challenge any government faces was in the decision-making process. The people of his district were still facing difficulties in the aftermath of the tsunami. The government had difficulty finding land and then releasing it to the affected people.

Mahinda Wijesekera explained the need for Provincial Councils to have an emergency plan to deal with the outcome of any disaster. He stated that when a delegation comprising members of the Select Committee went on a study tour to Germany and Turkey, they learnt the importance of having a civil service as well making sure emergency plans filtered down to the grass root level. He asked the representatives of the Provincial Councils to share their thoughts on how many people they needed to handle their work as well as whether they were receiving sufficient resources. He spoke on the buffer zone issue by asking the Provincial Council members who represented tsunami-affected areas to share their experiences on the challenges facing people there.

The Mayor of Galle stated that they have four fire engines and 12 people to operate the equipment. He requested the Select Committee to provide them with new equipment, better resources and new laws giving them authority.

Vajira Abeywardena briefed the Select Committee on the lack of progress made on the debris embedded in the sea. He said that up to now the Coast Conservation Department had failed to look into the matter. He also asked that the history of tsunamis happening in the country should be looked into and released to the public to create awareness.

Prof Kapila Dahanayake, Head of the Department of Geology, Peradeniya University thanked the Select Committee for its role in identifying the need to have better equipment in the seismological centres in the country. JICA is providing the necessary resources needed to repair the seismology equipment in the Peradeniya University.

The representative of the Provincial Council in Matara stated that there was a need for the resources that were to be spent in the case of an emergency to be allocated separately. He asked that the circulation notice where the government disallows government agents and people who have a livelihood that generates revenue and are affected by the tsunami to receive compensation to be removed.