Success, failure and prospect in the aftermath of tsunami

Tsunami Recovery in Sri Lanka: Retrospect and prospect:

by Indeewara Thilakarathne

As the Sri Lanka marked the third anniversary of the Asian Tsunami which wiped out entire communities in the maritime provinces claiming unprecedented death toil on a single, a seminal publication was launched at the BMICH by Social Policy Analysis and Research Centre (SPARC) of the University of Colombo in collaboration with Action Aid International, Sri Lanka, titled "Tsunami Recovery in Sri Lanka: Retrospect and Prospect".

The publication which was a culmination of a series of community based studies on monitoring the recovery process and subsequent presentations made at seminar, shed light on the massive recovery effort launched in the immediate aftermath of the tsunami by the Government of Sri Lanka and INGOs and NGOs and myriads socio-cultural and economic issues emerged from the disaster.

Although a large number of survivors have already been settled in either their original settlements or in newly established settlements in many parts of the country, in the Eastern province, there are considerable numbers of people who are yet to be permanently settled.

The publication further states that though studies were conducted in 2007, many issues highlighted still remained unresolved and in fact, number of new issues have been emerging due diverse factors such as disruption of traditional livelihoods, accessibility of services from the newly established settlements, uniformity of dowelling unit and not-so cohesive communities.

It has been pointed out that although the new settlements were established away from the coast, the inhabitants continue to access services such as health, education and banks established in and around old settlements. This is both costly and time consuming in addition to causing considerable inconvenience to the inhabitants. As the new settlements are away from the coast, traditional livelihoods of the most of the inhabitants have been disrupted.

One of the significant social implications of the shifting of the settlements from the coast to the inland is the collapse of the age-old established social networks and allied cultural resources, social assets amassed and the houses built to specifications and preferences of the inhabitants. For instance, the new settlements comprise prototype houses, few infrastructure facilities and the communities are not as cohesive as those in the original settlements.

A reason for the existence of unresolved issues is the withdrawal of international aid workers, NGOs and INGOs from the communities and failure on the part of local governing bodies such as Local Councils, to fill the vacuum left behind by the aid workers, NGOs and INGOs, due to the lack of finances and human resources.

The publication has also noted that the entire approach of handling the disaster and the tsunami disaster management was a highly centralized one from the commencement of the operations.

Although this was logical given the magnitude of the operation, continuation of the centralised approach, according to the publication, has resulted, in the long rung, in marginalization and non-involvement of Local Councils in the recovery and rehabilitation process.

At the initial stage, as many external actors were involved in the process, residents did not feel the absence of Local Councils. However, an organizational vacuum was created with the withdrawal of NGOs and INGOs en mass from the scene.

At this stage residents expected Local Councils to step in to address issues such as maintenance of physical infrastructure and solid waste management. The publication also emphasized the need for the state and non-state entities to continually involve in addressing diverse issues emerged in the aftermath of the disaster.

The papers published in the volume deal with range of issues from Women's rights and participation, mitigating of insecurity, resettlement and housing, livelihoods, central control and local coordination, accountability, transparency, corruption and to the public participation and consultation.

Women's rights and participation

It has been acknowledged that gender is a factor directly linked to poverty. In Sri Lankan context, lack of awareness and refusal to acknowledge this often resulted in women being discriminated in the arenas of access to housing, land and income earning opportunities.

In the aftermath of the tsunami, a large number of women became widows of tsunami and as head of families struggled to find places for shelter. In the process, they were exposed to sexual harassment either in the temporary shelters or in transitional camps.

The paper on Women's rights explores the 'issues concerning the safety and well-being of women that have not been addressed so far in recovery efforts.'

Among other thing the presentation on Women's rights is dealt with the issues pertaining to the non availability of reliable statistics and systematic organized information on victimized women.

This has hindered women's mobility, undermined dignity and rights. Lack of direct women representation in the recovery process resulted in neglecting the areas of women's needs and concerns. Little or no consultation with women in the areas of housing and livelihoods, created problems for women in organizing domestic space to meet various family requirements.

Referring to the security aspects, it has been stated that many people in the affected areas continue to experience insecurity and vulnerability. Heavy dependency on outside supply of relief and assistance, limited progress in restoring livelihoods and insufficient stakeholders, participation in decision making and policy formulations are some of the persistent issues.

Possibility of occurring haunts in the minds of the population living in the directly affected villages due to lack of tsunami early warning systems and the absence of tsunami shelter in the vicinity.

Despite global initiatives to set up Tsunami early warning systems, nothing has substantially been trickled down to the affected population and as a result most people living in the coastal villages experience sense insecurity as they felt before.

The publication further pointed out that areas of micro-credit programmes and SMEs (Small and Medium Scale Enterprises) have been overlooked, focusing on major economic sectors such as hotels and fisheries.

However, in terms of mitigating insecurity among the vulnerable sections in general and women in particular, it is imperative to look into the small scale business such as selling of fish, fishing, handicraft, catering and shop keeping as women engaged in those enterprises. This factor has adversely affected the self recovery process of women as they received little assistance from donors.

Lack of understanding of women's needs and cultural misunderstanding on the part of those who involved in planning and implementation of resettlement programmes has been the outcome of the sorry state.

The publication also looks at many issues involved in resettlement and housing including inconsistent government policy on buffer zone, slow progress in setting up certain areas such as Ampara and Batticoloa.

The publication critically examines the vital areas of the recovery process such as the issues with regard to the coordination of the operation, accountability, transparency and corruption and degree of public participation in the massive recovery effort.

'Tsunami Recovery in Sri Lanka: Retrospect and Prospect' is a must read for decision makers and policy makers in drafting a blueprint for a future disaster management.

As the publication also highlighted inherent institutional weaknesses, especially the inability of Local Councils to handle the situation even after four years from the catastrophe and issues examined in the volume are as relevance as they were at the initial stage of the recovery processes, it is the fervent hope that the findings would be utilized in formulating future disaster management plans.

Authorities should also be taken into consideration that fact that it is imperative to strengthen and build capacities of Local Councils in order to effectively address residual issues.

[email protected]