ReliefWeb

Rationale “Sri Lanka is fast becoming a country affected by multi – hazards. For the past three years, the country faced fourteen major disasters” underlines Dr. S. Amalanathan, Additional Secretary (Development & Relief) of the Ministry of Public Administration, Disaster Management, Rural Economic and Livestock Development.

Recently, the Global Climate Risk Index 2019, published by German Watch, which analyses the latest data, pertaining to countries and regions that have been affected by the impact of weather-related events such as storms, floods, heat waves et al, has ranked Sri Lanka in second place, amongst the territories most affected in 2017. Floods, mostly due to monsoonal rain or effects of low - pressure systems and droughts, caused by failure of monsoonal rain are the most common hazards experienced in Sri Lanka. The Island is also prone to hazards such as landslides, lightning strikes, coastal erosion, epidemics and effects of environmental pollution and Tsunami, as profiled by the Ministry of Disaster Management.

For effective disaster preparedness, an efficient and effective end-to-end warning system is indispensable, with readiness to act 24 /7, to confront any potential disaster threat, as well as to alert and motivate the at-risk communities and adopt immediate, appropriate measures to save lives.
The development of Standard Operation Procedures (SOPs) in such a context, becomes a essential part of Early Warning dissemination.
In Sri Lanka, there was no proper early warning system in place, prior to the devastating 2004 Tsunami. It was only post-2004, that preparations of SOPs were initiated for all hazards. Today, SOPs are available for most of the common hazards in Sri Lanka.