Rising from the remains.......

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National Safety Day

26th December will be Sri Lanka's National Safety Day, remembering the 2004 December 26 Tsunami devastation, since it is the worst disaster we faced in the recent history.

This year the day will be focused in the Ratnapura district where several indoor and outdoor activities and awareness programmes are arranged, Disaster Management Centre (DMC) informed.26th December starts with remembering the men, women and children - young and old - who lost their lives in those tidal waves.

Throughout the day there will be many programmes remembering the tragedy and awareness programmes islandwide as well under Divisional Secretariats, DMC officials stated.

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by Dhaneshi Yatawara

In another three days from today, it will be exactly three years since Sri Lanka was hit by one of the deadliest tidal waves, causing families to lose their loved ones, children without their parents, searching for their children - a major devastation throughout the country.

Literally speaking it was an earthquake that shook the whole world. This 26th December 2004 tsunami, triggered by a massive earthquake of a moment magnitude 9.0 - was recorded as one of the worst ten deadliest disasters on this earth.

Hardest hit countries were Sumatra, Sri Lanka, Thailand and India. These five to ten feet tall tidal waves hit the coastal line of our land and shook the whole country.

Overall this tsunami generated by the earthquake off the coast of northern Sumatra was recorded worldwide and killed more people than any other tsunami in recorded history.

More than 297,248 people were either killed or listed missing and presumed dead and a further 1,126,900 were displaced by the earthquake and subsequent tsunami. The estimated economic losses exceeded $10 billion.

The shock and the loss

In Sri Lanka, we lost almost 35,000 women, men and children, more lives were shattered and displaced. The 'Samudra Devi' (Queen of the Sea) train was hit on its way to its southern destination at a place close to Galle city, killing its commuters leaving just a handful of survivors.

We all gathered around radios and televisions, silently absorbing the news blank faced, unable to comprehend what we were seeing and hearing. The devastation might be limited to coastal regions, but the sense of shock and loss is universal. This is a small country, one in which almost everyone knows, or is related to someone who was caught up in the mayhem.

Across the island collections are being taken for those who have lost everything, vans with PA systems driving around calling on people to give what ever they can.

Even in the poorest, most remote areas people flock to the roadside to hand over money, clothes, bottles of water and bags of rice and lentils. On buildings everywhere, from factories to schools,army bases to roadside shacks, people hung white flags and banners - the traditional Buddhist way of mourning and condolence.

Each citizen was doing the best whatever they can to help the lost, helpless and depressed fellow citizens.

The recovery

The worst hit were the eastern and the deep southern coastal line.

Government institutes, Non Governmental Organizations, community groups individuals donated their efforts - financially or non financially - for the overall regaining programme.

The tsunami wave heights varied from location to location and the damage and deaths were directly proportional to elevation.

Education and combination of warning systems and evacuation routes to higher grounds that will make a profound difference in the future was focused in this process. Prioritizing disaster risk management on the list of national priorities for Sri Lanka happened aftermath this 2004 tsunami destruction.

The Select Committee on Natural Disasters, enactment of the legislation on disaster management, establishment of the Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights, creation of the Disaster Management Centre and establishment of the National Council for Disaster Management are some of the significant steps taken by the Government of Sri Lanka.

The Department of Meteorology was also gazetted under the Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights. The Department of Meteorology has also been designated as the lead agency for Tsunami Early Warning.

More recently the formulation and launch of the Road Map for Disaster Risk Management in Sri Lanka has been a big step forward. This Road Map is a ten year framework to be addressed in a systematic and prioritized manner with the involvement of all relevant stakeholders.

These priorities for action are consistent with the Sri Lanka Disaster Management Act No. 13 of 2005,working towards implementing in the next decade.

The Road Map covers the areas of, Policy, Institutional Mandates and Institutional Development, Hazard, Vulnerability and risk assessment, Tsunami and Multi-hazard Early Warning Systems, Disaster Preparedness Planning and Response, Disaster Mitigation and Integration in to Development Planning, Integration of Disaster Risk Reduction into Development Planning, Community based Disaster Management, Public Awareness, Education and Training.

Friendship Villages

A large number of houses along the coast in Sri Lanka were destroyed by the tsunami and the homeless had to seek refuge in transit camps.

Since housing a basic and an essential need for restoring the livelihood of the affected people bringing back normalcy the Government of Japan in consultation with the Government of Sri Lanka had allocated funds for the construction of two Friendship Villages in Trincomalee district and one Friendship Village in Ampara district.

The reconstruction of Japan-Sri Lanka Friendship Villages, located in Iqbal Nagar in Trincomalee district and Hijra Nagar in Ampara district have been completed and handed over last August to those affected people.

Japan-Sri Lanka village in Konesapuri in Trincomalee district has been completed and will be handed over soon after the end of partner INGO's construction work.

The Government of Japan has provided Rs. 1.1 billion for the construction of these villages. The Iqbal Nagar village in Trincomalee and the Hijra Nagar village in Ampara were entirely funded by Japan.

They include not only houses, but also in-site roads, access roads, landscaping, water supply & drainage, electricity, pre-schools, community centers, public bus stand, public bathing place and other necessary infrastructure for the livelihood of Tsunami affected people.

Furthermore, the Government of Japan in collaboration with INGOs, which are providing houses, supplied necessary public infrastructure such as in-site roads, water supply & drainage, electricity, pre-schools, community centers etc. to the Konesapuri village in Trincomalee.

In Hijra Nagar, 90% of total families are Muslims and 10% of them are Tamils. The total number of families in Hijra Nagar is 200. Among the 246 families in Iqbal Nagar, 55% of them are Tamils and the rest of them are Muslims. The beneficiaries of Konesapuri are totally Tamils.

Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) assisted in carrying out the surveys, preparation of plans and designing of the houses and amenities. At the same time, Japan International Cooperation System (JICS) supervised the project.

The funds for the construction of the friendship villages is part of the US$ 80 million Non-Project Grant Aid made available by the Government of Japan towards tsunami rehabilitation and reconstruction work in Sri Lanka.

A major part of these funds was utilized for a wide range of rehabilitation and reconstruction activities including fisheries, electricity, health, water & sanitation, construction of bridges, schools, police stations.

Housing projects

National Housing Development Authority (NHDA) works as the overseeing and quality assuring body of the all housing projects in the tsunami affected areas.

In addition to the Japanese grants for the Japan - Sri Lanka friendship villages, KFW Bank of the German Government, Italian Government (Padova City Council) and many International NGOs are supporting repairing as well as constructing houses of the affected families, NHDA officials said.

The Authority undertakes and supervises the technical factor of the project. Owner participatory construction as a methodology to lower the expenses has become very effective, NHDA officials highlighted. In these constructions where the community participation, the Government involvement becomes minimum.

The NHDA officials stated that on average almost 85 - 90 % of the construction works are completed and repairing partly damaged houses is completed.

Reconstruction of bridges

The Japanese Non-Project Grant Aid was targeted towards the neediest areas throughout the country according to priority by selecting the Reconstruction of four (04) Bridges and one Culvert in the South, and three causeways in the East, all badly damaged due to the Tsunami.

The four Bridges and the one (01) Culvert in the South, namely Akurala Bridge, Seeinigama Bridge, Magalle Bridge, Ahangama Bridge and Weligama Culvert on the A2 highway in the Galle District, have also been successfully completed.

This project commenced in August 2005, and was completed in December 2006. The total length of construction is 86 metres.

This scheme, on completion, has not only enabled the transport in the south to get back to normalcy, but also increased road safety and the load of traffic. The total cost of the project has been around 594 million Yen. This project mainly benefits approximately 8.0 million population living in the Western and Southern Provinces.

The three causeways in the East, namely Komari causeway in the Ampara District, Periya Kallar causeway and Koddaiakallar causeway in the Batticaloa District, commenced reconstruction in August 2005, and was completed in June 2007, bringing the total length of construction to 1,627 metres in all. These causeways have facilitated mobility to the populations living in the East, especially in Batticaloa and Ampara, resulting in speedy restoration of livelihoods leading to normalcy.

The total cost of the project has been 791 million Yen, making it one of the largest projects implemented under the Non-Project Grant Aid. This reconstruction mainly benefits approximately 1.5 million residents living in the Eastern Province.

It is also significant that in implementing these construction works, almost all labour force were drawn from the local people.

Totally over 150,000 man-days local Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim people are engaged in this task. This has had a positive effect on the already disrupted livelihoods of the people by way of supplementing their family incomes as well as provided an opportunity for the communities to be actively engaged in the Tsunami reconstruction process.

Education

Apart from houses, roads and many buildings schools were affected - either partially or fully damaged.

Ministry of Education has identified 183 tsunami affected schools in those particular areas and 98 out of the total were totally destructed.

Currently 100 schools are repaired and reconstructed; majority of these schools are functioning as they used to be before the D day, except for the schools in the areas under terrorists' stronghold where data is unknown. Ministry of Education has set up TARM - Tsunami Affected Rehabilitation Monitor - for the better performance of the reconstruction and rehabilitation work.

The Government contributes the basic infrastructure facilities, therefore Water supply, land and electricity etc, and the reconstruction works are processed based on funds donated by our friendly nations. TARM officials explained that Governments of Japan, Italy, Switzerland, Norway and Germany, many International NGOs and well-wishers are donating different sectors of school reconstruction and rehabilitation programmes.

According to TARM officials Singapore has agreed to assist in this school reconstruction programmes and hoping to start early next year.

The total disbursement of the foreign aids is approximately around 7000 million rupees, TARM officials said. We are stepping in to the third remembrance of that mass destruction we, as a country faced. Let us forbid the memories to be submerged in the sea of time.

Let us do our best to regain the brilliance our brethren had before their lives shattered under those sturdy waves.

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