Natural Hazards and Disasters in Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka is highly susceptible to various natural hazards, including droughts, floods, earth slips, and tsunamis, which frequently cause significant damage to communities and infrastructure. These events are often driven by climatic factors and human activities like deforestation. Effective mitigation relies on a structured disaster management cycle encompassing proactive preparedness, rapid response during the event, and comprehensive recovery efforts to restore normalcy and resilience.
Key Takeaways
A hazard is a potential threat, while a disaster is the actual incident affecting people or property.
Droughts and floods are the most common climate-related disasters impacting Sri Lankan agriculture.
Earth slips are often triggered by incessant rain combined with improper land use on steep slopes.
The disaster management cycle is divided into three critical phases: preparedness, response, and recovery.
Tsunami preparedness requires immediate movement to higher ground upon receiving official warnings.
What are the key concepts defining natural hazards and disasters?
Defining natural hazards and disasters is crucial for effective risk management, as they represent distinct stages of a threat. A hazard is fundamentally a natural phenomenon, such as an earth slip occurring in an uninhabited area, that possesses the potential to cause damage to community or property and is often considered a continuous process. Conversely, a disaster occurs only when a hazard incident significantly affects a community or property, resulting in loss or damage, such as an earth slip impacting a densely populated region. Understanding this clear distinction allows authorities to prioritize mitigation efforts based on the vulnerability of specific populations.
- Hazard: Natural phenomena causing damage to community or property; recognized as a continuous process.
- Disaster: Hazard incidents that significantly affect community or property, resulting in measurable loss.
- Earth Slip Example: Illustrates the difference, where the hazard exists in an uninhabited area, but becomes a disaster only in a densely populated region.
Which natural disasters commonly affect Sri Lanka and what are their causes?
Sri Lanka is vulnerable to a wide array of natural disasters, primarily driven by intense climatic patterns and geographical location, including drought, floods, cyclones, and tsunamis. Droughts result from delayed or decreased rainfall, often exacerbated by deforestation and global warming, leading to severe water scarcity and crop destruction. Floods, caused by incessant heavy rains and poor land management like clearing forests, result in loss of life, property damage, and disease spread. Understanding the specific causes and impacts of each event is vital for developing targeted prevention and early warning strategies across the island nation.
- Drought: Defined as dry conditions resulting from delayed rainfall, caused by decreased precipitation, setting fire to forests, and global warming, leading to severe water scarcity, crop destruction, and environmental impacts like increased temperatures and soil infertility.
- Flood: Characterized by the rapid overflow of water in rivers and canals due to incessant heavy rains, exacerbated by human factors like clearing forests, reclamation of lowlands, and sand mining in river valleys, resulting in loss of lives, property damage, and the spread of waterborne diseases.
- Earth Slips (Landslides): Involve the sliding of earth portions down steep slopes, triggered by natural causes like heavy rain, steep slopes, and weathered rock, and human causes such as setting fire to forests and improper land use, leading to loss of life, property, and blocked waterways.
- Cyclones (Storms): Powerful, hard-blowing winds spinning rapidly in a swirl, originating from high temperature and low-pressure centers, typically in the Bay of Bengal, causing massive loss of lives and property, destruction of cultivations, and flooding of the sea in coastal areas.
- Thunderbolts (Lightning): A dangerous discharge of electric current occurring primarily during the active convectional periods of March-April and October-November, resulting in loss of lives, property damage, and the breakdown of electric and communication networks.
- Tsunami: Extremely fast waves moving towards the coast, caused by massive seabed disturbances such as underwater earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, or earth slips, leading to widespread destruction of coastal features, infrastructure, and marine life, as tragically demonstrated on December 26, 2004.
- Earthquakes: Sudden ground tremors resulting from high internal temperature and pressure changes, or human activities that disrupt earth equilibrium (like large reservoirs and constructions), causing displacement, loss of life, and disruption of agricultural activities.
How is the disaster management cycle structured to handle natural hazards?
The disaster management cycle is systematically structured into three essential phases—preparedness, response, and recovery—to effectively address the continuous threat posed by natural hazards. Preparedness is the proactive phase occurring before a disaster, focusing on identifying hazardous zones, protecting vital forest cover, and building disaster-resistant infrastructure. Response involves immediate, life-saving actions during the event, such as collecting victims to safety, providing essential medical assistance, and ensuring access to food and beverages. Finally, recovery focuses on post-disaster relief, establishing emergency centers, and planning the restoration of mental health and normal community life.
- Preparedness (Before Disaster): Focuses on identifying hazardous zones, making people aware of risks, protecting forest cover and catchment areas, installing lightning conductors, and building disaster-resistant houses.
- Response (During Disaster): Involves collecting victims to safety, prioritizing the protection of lives over property, providing immediate medical assistance, and moving away from damaged buildings or contaminated food sources.
- Recovery (After Disaster): Requires identifying problems, providing necessary relief to victims, establishing emergency centers, conducting health programs, and planning the restoration of mental health and introducing disaster kits.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the primary difference between a hazard and a disaster?
A hazard is a potential threat, like a natural phenomenon causing damage. A disaster is the actual incident where the hazard affects a community, resulting in significant loss of life or property, such as an earth slip hitting a populated area.
What are the main environmental impacts of drought in Sri Lanka?
Droughts lead to an increase in temperature, a decrease in groundwater levels, and the destruction of forests and bio-resources. They also cause soil infertility, bush fires, and damage to the natural scenic beauty of the environment.
What are the key steps in the preparedness phase of disaster management?
Key steps include identifying hazardous zones, making people aware of risks, protecting forest cover and catchment areas, and building disaster-resistant houses and infrastructure while remaining alert for warnings.
