Recent heavy rains across Sri Lanka have caused flooding and landslides that have
left scores of people dead and tens of thousands of people homeless. While government
Ministers in charge of Disaster Management were quick to go to the flood hit areas,
there is growing concern about the government’s ability to cope with the crisis. Estimates
say more than a million people have been affected by the flooding, with the worst
affected areas in the East of the country – an area that had already been devastated
by long years of war and by the Tsunami of 2004.
Although the death toll so
far is a only a fraction of that, which the Tsunami caused, the destruction of agricultural
lands, infrastructure damage and loss of livelihoods is much higher.
The
government has dealt with the immediate aftermath of the disaster by deploying security
forces personnel who have been supported by local level government structures in place
working closely with local and international NGOs and communities living in adjacent
villages and towns.
Director of the National Peace Council of Sri Lanka, Jehan
Perera says such cooperation needs to be strengthened – while the government in recent
years has been increasingly reluctant to engage with civil society and NGO’s. "The
government has adopted a restrictive policy," toward NGOs and international organizations
- a policy for which NGOs and international donors, "have also been adopting a little
bit of a 'hands-off' attitude." Besides epidemics, another major concern is the possibility
of a rice shortage, which could result from the destruction of vast extents of paddy
land and irrigation systems, upon which many farmers are dependent for cultivation.