Tsunami mitigation measures, awareness & response in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Knowledge on coastal hazards among the community is very important in minimizing properly damage and also safe the Uves of people who Hve in the coastal region. Among the several coastal hazards, the Tsunami is the most destructive natural hazard that can be occurred. On 26th December 2004, the Sri Lankan community at the coastal belt experienced this massive disaster due to the Tsunami caused due to the huge earthquake occurred at off the coast of Sumathra. This resulted widespread damage both property and human lives. It was reputed that the loss of Uves in Sri Lanka is around 40,000 and which was around 250,000 in the region. The millions of people loss their homes. The damage for Sri Lankans were very high due to the unawareness and unprepardness. In Sri Lankan History, it was not experienced such dramatic hazard in the recent past. That was the main reason for increasing the damage. In this survey, it was planned to assess the degree of awareness among the community about Tsunami and its mitigatory measures. The survey was carried out in two steps in December 2006. i) Before the 2"^ anniversary of Tsunami ii) After the 2"^ anniversary of Tsunami The survey was planned for both school children and the general public. It was possible to coUect around 1200 samples from both categories. The selection of G.N Division was carried out based on the effectiveness of Tsunami whether they were effected, moderately effected or severely effected. While concentrating on G.N Divisions on such a way the schools were selected from the data obtained from the Southern Provincial Education Department. Students as well as pubUc were very keen in answering questions at the survey. Once collecting data, it was presented in graphical and tabulator forms in order to compare the results. According to the results, it was found that the community was fuUy unaware at the time of Tsunami hitting the coastal belt of the country. The media effect was not sufficient to disseminate the message among the community. This has been remarkably improved at the time of Tsunami warning given on 28*^ March 2005. But the knowledge on present developments of integrated Tsunami monitoring system, evacuation plan are not suflicient. The survey shows that the continuous actions on awareness, updating knowledge and capacity building to be carried out in order to minimize the damage that can be caused by future Tsunamis.