Dealing with the Tsunami

Visiting TAFREN

2005-10-09T18:15:00.000-07:00

Rajan Philips and myself visited TAFREN (Task Force for the Reconstruction of the Nation) in early September - the task force that was appointed by the President to control reconstruction after the tsunami - we had an appointment with the Chair Ms. Rohini Nanayakkara.

TAFREN is in Colombo and its not easily accesible to the Tsunami affected. Getting to TAFREN is not easy even with an appointment - we have to go through three security barriers that had been set up for the Presidents residence - TAFREN neigbours it. It was only our appointment that enabled us access. We were called to our meeting - we noticed that the officers of TAFREN were quite young - and the lingua franca was in English - perhaps, this agency was oriented towards meetings with foreigners - and indeed, we were almost that - having come from Canada and US. Ms. Nanayakkara let us know that all TAFREN does was that it coordinates the activities of the othere agencies and that it is an extremely limited role that it plays. She may have thought that we were representing business interests. I asked her as to whether there was opportunity to volunteer services and she said that wew could send in a CV. Rajan has much technical expertise in reconstruction and wanted to contribute but there was no technical expertise on the Reconstruction Task Force. My background did elicit interest but it was in the broad field of environment for which there is there far better experts in Sri Lanka.

Six Months On - An Editorial from GeoLanka/RecoverLanka

2005-07-11T07:00:00.000-07:00

Lareef Zubair, Neil Devadasan, D.H.S. Maithripala, Manoharan Philips

and Vidhura Ralapanawe (RecoverLanka/GeoLanka Adminstrators)

We launched the websites http://www.recoverlanka.net/ and http://www.geolanka.net/ the day after the Tsunami hoping to find a way to contribute to the recovery effort. The content in these sites serve as a valuable repository of the critical material relating to the Tsunami that was painstakingly collected. Created and run by a volunteer team the websites form an independent archive that has been cited by agencies such as the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the New York One television stations, the United Nations Agencies and the Institute of Earthquake Engineering Research.

People affected by the earthquake and the Tsunami were largely the poor, the marginalized and included many who were already suffering from extended conflicts. Six months have lapsed, we attempt to evaluate whether relief efforts have met the reasonable expectations of the affected.

Many who were closest to the tragedy and who worked directly with the affected gave their all to bury those who died and to provide succour to those who survived. Some worked with their bare hands to excavate the dead and extricate the living. Others, consoled and counseled the victims, undertook personal fund raising and helped in maximizing the use of the funds collected. Many as individuals, reached deep to provide assistance to those who claimed to help the afflicted. Some choose to focus their efforts for the long-term recovery of specific villages or particular families. Most of them were heroic in their devotion with little publicity or resources and these websites archive a few of their stories.

Yet if we take stock, six months after the devastation, the relief, recovery and reconstruction in Sri Lanka is below our lowest expectations. The generous response of many has not translated into helping the communities that were affected, individuals to recover their lives or for institutions to be rebuilt.

The tragedy garnered greater media attention and fund raising than we anticipated and the attention on the disaster stayed longer than we expected. Savvy fund raisers garnered much. There was a reorganization of many foreign agencies who work in Sri Lanka - they retooled to raise funds and disburse them. The fund raising efforts also drew in those who were not genuinely concerned. While many religious people contributed, we have several reports of missionaries taking advantage of the situation to collect funds and to proselytize the shocked by inflaming tensions. There are many reports of gross misappropriation; some of these reports are archived in the websites.

The government and its creditors have fared distressingly poorly in aiding the afflicted, failed to ensure that tensions are not raised and fair play is respected. The government went through too many changes in terms of task forces and organizations that were responsible, and to this day have done poorly in including representatives of the affected. Though there were multiple agencies that were competing with each other to harvest the funds coming in, it was the lower ranks of government officers who managed to stay true to purpose - we had a report of a Grama Niladhari in the Ampara district, a refugee himself, make government work for the rest, enduring the preening of officials from Colombo.

The Non-Governmental Organizations have proliferated in Sri Lanka after the Tsunami - many who have set up shop to harvest relief funds and to provide local reports and photo-ops for the International NGO's. We featured a report of one International NGO, which fired a local official involved in coordination work and replaced her with a $7000 a month import, all the while claiming that local labour laws did not apply. We have reports of the proliferation of new $50,000 SUV's after the Tsunami all bearing the brand of one or the other of the INGOs. Yet, some of the NGOs and INGOs were crucial in providing sustenance to many community efforts. Governmental monitoring of the work of the NGOs is poor. The lack of transparency in accounting of funds is disturbing.

The medical establishment in Sri Lanka has done well in providing services. Despite the unwise claims of a WHO official regarding the risk of epidemics we did not witness any such epidemics. Yet, these fears that were festered led to many violations of rights and subsequent problems as there was an unnecessary rush to bury the dead, without accounting, without identification, and without regard to traditional burial rites.

The political establishment in Sri Lanka has acquitted themselves poorly. The government has intensified its infighting among its constituent parties and has failed to lead efforts to provide for the afflicted. Individual politicians have used the Tsunami aid to burnish their own images. The UNP has failed to provide a principled alternative to reflect the tragedy of the people. There are reports of recruitment of children for fighting, increased dependency of the population and continued assassinations of opponents in the areas under the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Although there are glowing reports of the efficiency of the Tamil Relief Organization (TRO) in the international media, there are increasing doubts about the accuracy of these reports. The JVP which mobilized its cadres for relief work in an extraordinary effort in affected areas including in Batticaloa and Ampara could not translate its resources into building an effective front for relief.

The foreign lending organizations providing guidance to the government too have a mixed record. Debt has been postponed but no long-term relief that can provide enduring services to the affected has been provided. They offered themselves to mobilize funds but often only a small fraction of these funds reached the affected. A very large share of the funds seems spent on salaries, hotels, perks and travels rather than on relief. Most of the International Aid comes with strings attached. Many nations providing aid have rules that require as much as 75% of the Aid to be spent on local resources such as equipment and expertise.

The lending organizations have used the funds they have to demand changes in the administrative structure, without regard to the sovereign rights of nations. Local expertise has been ignored; relief planning and implementation have been dominated by International agencies.

The disaster management community has got tied up in knots not knowing how to proceed. Some of the associated officials, scientists and engineers are stuck in officialdom, understanding little of the needs of those in the remoter regions and proceeded to announce coastal buffer zones of various widths. Yet, there are also the officials who have worked professionally for decades and educated and instructed but have been ignored for too long by the Sri Lankan government.

Taken together, all of these shortcomings, the bitterness, the inequities and corruption may perhaps have a greater damaging effect than the Tsunami itself.

Much of the good and the bad that happens are neither monitored nor recorded. Here in these websites, we continue to see the need for an independent archive to record information and to provide information to the many who need it; the task of Tsunami relief is far from done, the rehabilitation and reconstruction have barely commenced. What we do is meager and we hope to persist in keeping record and in telling the stories, independently.

New York Academy of Sciences Update Magazine

2005-06-20T18:47:00.000-07:00

The New York Academy of Sciences Update magazine features articles on the Tsunami including one that reports on the panel that was held in March reportedly previously in this blog which included me. The pdf version of the article is on page 3 of the update magazine. This article was written by Sheri Fink, a doctor and writer, who also described her own experience with the Tsunami in Indonesia and Thailand, in the same issue. Also see the NYAS website.

Disasters Victims and Disasters Beneficiaries

2005-06-09T18:31:00.000-07:00

After every disaster in Sri Lanka whether it be the 1978 Cyclone, the 2000 cyclone, the 2001-2 drought, the May 2003 flood and landslide disaster, the derailment of the trains in 2004, the mitigation steps needed in the future such as warning systems, better zoning and infrastructure, better emergency management system, better and adequately funded maintenance, the need to follow existing procedures and more advanced systems are all identified. But there has been a failure to follow through every time.

After the 1978 cyclone, guidelines were developed on reducing storm surges at the coast (much as being done now after the Tsunami) and many workshops and trips overseas. There was near unanimity in what needed to be done. What happened was that none of this was implemented. And indeed, there was a repeat of the destruction in the 2000 cyclone. If any of the measures proposed in 1978 had been in place, there would have been a vast scaling down of the Tsunami’s destruction.

After the May 2003 disaster in Ratnapura, there were unanimous calls for proper disaster warning systems, relocation of the vulnerable people living on slip zones and the injection of disaster risk management and emergency management systems, instead of emergency relief as a national strategy. This never happened. The political parties squabbled.

Disasters bring in discretionary funds into accounts under minimal oversight and maximum discretion, lead to expenditures benefiting the businesses in the metropolises, trips and training for government officials and the NGO’s and opportunities for business groups. The prospect of all this drove the rupee’s value up so that it went from being 107 rupees to the US dollar to 95 rupees per dollar in the week during Sri Lanka’s worst tragedy.

There is little incentive to reduce the vulnerability of those in the periphery for the perverse system in place rewards failures on the past of disaster officialdom in government and international agencies with new funds.

It would be wrong to call it a national tragedy – this was a tragedy once again of those in Sri Lanka’s peripheral regions – yes with allowance for Ministers, past and present, and the rich caught up in beaches in tourist hotels. This disaster for the peripheral regions has once again turned into a rewarding opportunity for those in the metropolises.

The prevailing meta-narratives, particularly in the overseas press, of a neutral physical force wiping out unsuspecting populations ignore the essential causes of the scale of the disaster. It is contributing to the root causes of the reason why the vulnerable are repeatedly subject to disasters. It empowers the processes that keep the peripheral vulnerable and it is harmful and dangerous.

More on Sethusamudaram

2005-06-02T18:35:00.000-07:00

Dr. Ramesh Radhakrishnan of Tamil Nadu, India, has put together a rich site on the real dangers that Sethusamudaram poses to Western Sri Lanka and Southern Tamil Nadu and Kerala coasts - please see

http://www.manisanga.blogspot.com/

Sethusamudaram in a time of Tsunami

2005-04-28T13:15:00.000-07:00

I had thought that the Tsunami shall put an end to the Sethusamudram project. This is a proposal by the Indian military and shipping industry to cut a channel for ships to travel from the Arabian Sea to the Bay of Bengal without going around Sri Lanka. The narrow channel, the Palk Straits is rather shallow, and the oceanic connection through it of recent origin in geological time scales. At some points, the seas are only a few meters deep particularly at Adams bridge.

Although there are extraordinary pressure gradients across this channel due to the South-West monsoon during the Northern Hemisphere Summer (April to September) and the North-East monsoon during the Winter (December to February) , the currents across the Palk Straits are rather minimal. Yet, nearby to the South of Sri Lanka, there is an oceanographic jet of high speeds that makes a spectacular seasonal reversal. The barrier at Adams Bridge ensures a relative tranquil sea at the Gulf of Mannar to its North and the Palk Bay to its South. This tranquility provides a delicate niche ecosystem that was sensitive enough to produce oysters and the endangered duggons now documented in the Gulf of Mannar marine park. If indeed, you cut through the canal, one may not quite know what the impact shall be. A real danger is that there could be a feedback loop - a small cut leading to erosion, which increasing the channel depth and section and that leads to greater erosion.

It is rather foolhardy to undertake this project where there are so many vulnerable people both in Tamil Nadu and in Sri Lanka. I had raised all this in 1997. If anything became clear during the Tsunami, it is how careless and incapable officialdom in both countries are regarding reducing the risk of the vulnerable and even taking care of those who suffer from their dereliction of duty.

The matter was then being pushed by the Indian Defense Minister George Fernandes with thoughts of dealing with the regional nuclear threat in mind. Lately, the mantle to push through the project has been taken up by the DMK, the ruling party in Tamil Nadu, and there are doubts as to whether a fair environmental impact assessment can be undertaken there given the promise of the Ministers of Shipping and Environment to pursue a favourable outcome.

It is in this context that the Tuticorin port authority put out a EIA report in outline. Many have raised questions. There are just so many assumptions in that report. In one place, it says that no leakage or accidents of ships will be permitted in the channel. How, this is possible when rebels and smugglers cross the Straits at will was not addressed.

It is only in the last year, that the new government in Sri Lanka even considered taking up the issue. Since that time, a panel of scientists led by the National Acquatic Research Agency has put together a Environmental Impact scoping report. In reality there is no data. Yet, its unfortunate that these scientists have not publicized their findings.

As important, is the principle, increasingly recognized in International treaties - which is the Precautionary Principle. This merely states that one should not undertake actions that can lead to extreme environmental and health impacts if one is not sure of the possible scenarios. Yet, those in favour of this project in India and some in Sri Lanka. They argued that India's experts have made their pronoucements and we shoudl all get out of the way of "development".

The oceanographical possibilities was reduced to a caricature exercise of a model canal through the straits. But nature is not so simple. And if there was any thing needed to prove it and wake people up , it was the giant earthquake and Tsunami which our respected scientists completely missed forewarnign of the risks of. Indian geo-scientists - like all scientists are fallible and the scientific infrastructure is such that basic knowledge is often not applied to protect the vulnerable.

While the scientists, policy makers and the contractors are derelict, its the vulnerable who pay the price. Now, we countenance the fact that the shipping Minister of India continues to lobby with the passive response by official scientific agencies in Sri Lanka as the vulnerability of its coastal population, leave risks regarding fisheries, and indeed the marine ecosystem based on so many unknowns. Have they not paid enough of a price from the Tsunami?

The Upcoming Rainy Season

2005-04-28T13:00:00.000-07:00

Four months after the Tsunami most of the survivors of the Tsunami remain in temporary shelter - in tents or accommodated by family and friends, despite the massive fundraising by the governmental and non-governmental organizations. The affected remain vulnerable to a variety of environmental stresses as the seasons marches on.

On the whole, the period since the Tsunami has been just slightly wetter in Sri Lanka than normal in most parts of the island. January to March is a relatively dry period and it is only now as April ends that the Yala rainfall is expected. Thus the shelters, the drainage, the septic systems and drainage systems shall be exposed to heavy rainfall.

<>The conditions are right for mosquito breeding and this is one season of heightened malaria transmission unless drains are cleared and other mitigatory steps are taken. The roofing in temporary and other shelters shall be exposed to rain. If the tsunami related debris has not been properly disposed and the munipal waste disposal is improper, then rain can leach contaminants into the ground water. If the drainage systems blocked up the tsunami debris and damage has not been cleared this is the time when water logging can lead to myriad other problems. In these and myriad other ways, the coming rainfall can lead to conditions that can impair the particularly vulnerable. Proper attention is needed as Yala approaches. See Figures

Advancing Sciences at a Time of Tsunami

2005-04-12T15:26:00.000-07:00

An unprecedented interest in Earth Sciences has been generated by the Tsunami in Sri Lanka. Indeed, Sri Lankan scientists are writing feature articles, appearing on television, testifying to parliamentary committees and so on.

The failure of earth scientists to warn of Tsunami and earthquake risk has been legitimately queried. The shortcomings of the sciences in Sri Lanka are well known
- the sciences have been underfunded and marginalized for too long - the ministry of science and technology estimates that barely 0.18% of GNP is spent on sciences whereas a bare minimum of 0.7% is recommended
- scientists work without proper support or facilities such as proper libraries, grant schemes or time for research
- scientific bodies such as National Academy of Sciences, Sri Lanka Association for Sciences, Intitute of Physics and such are given far too meager support from the state.
- bad governance of scientific institutions sometimes by scientists has undermined work
- promotion schemes within Universities have been designed by administrators that undermines academic merit
- slower promotions in the Sri Lankan technical services lets junior administrative officers overrule senior scientists and engineers.
- science and technology investments in Sri Lanka have been Colombo-centric with perhaps a satellite in Kandy - these facilities are too remote from the populace - as a result science and technology does not garner broad support, input or the vitality.
- in the regime of micromanagement of projects by foreign debt and grant managers, scientific services are reflexively sought from overseas, thus undermining local scientific and technological development.

In addition, there has been a failure in earth sciences in Sri Lanka. Universities and related institutions have taken steps far too slowly to deal with the growing environmental and earth related problems in Sri Lanka. There are just few good signs all of which we of the Sri Lanka Meteorology, Oceanography and Hydrology Network have been able to document over the last six years.

Long-term preparedness and mitigation of future disasters cannot happen with a robuts and vital local scientific and technological advance. They cannot be served by those in foreign metropolitan centers. The local and have been neglected for too long - the responsibility of course are not only that of the scientists but also the administrators, policy makers and debt managers.

At the same time, Sri Lanka has become a focus of scientific studies, of those concerned with the Tsunami. Much funds are being generated by foreign scientists and Sri Lankan scientists serve in the role of local guides who do not have intellectual lead in the efforts. This is unfortunate as expertise on the Tsunami shoudl be developed locally - for it could be one of the few fields that remain open to Sri Lankan scientists to make a contribution of international repute.

It is in this context that its best to present this proposal for advancing physical sciences in Sri Lanka. In actually fact, some Prof. Lakshman Dissanayake and myself have been working on this proposal for a year. In fact, this was the last document that I was working on December 25th. This was cleaned up for my visit to Trieste which had been planned a year back to review possibilities of plans to advance physical sciences in Sri Lanka and to explore possibilities for cooperation between ICTP and my own institution. Here is the draft proposal. It is designed mindful of current conditions to foster some excellence in a few places in Sri Lanka.

Tsunami Physics and Preparedness - Meeting at ICTP

2005-03-31T15:49:00.000-08:00

The International Centre for Theoretical Physics organized a workshoop on the Tsunami in Trieste Italy on the 24th of March , 2005. I was one of the speakers on the topic of
Science, Disaster Management and Tsunami in Sri Lanka.

See details

Meeting Report

This seminar was organized by the International Centre for Theoretical Physics which was founded by Abdus Salaam, who was later awarded the Nobel Prize, to support scientific advancement in poor countries. I had attended one workshop on topographic effects on climate modelling at this centre in 1997 and had been an Associate Member thereafter.

The Tsunami Physics and Preparedness meeting had been organized by the ICTP, as a response to the Indian Ocean event. There were two aspects to the meeting - the morning concerned the role that ICTP can play through its programs in the countries on the Indian Ocean littoral and the afternoon concerned the Adriatic Seas.

The ICTP functioned initially under the sponsorship of IAEA and later in addition of UNESCO. UNESCO is taking a lead role in the UN system in creating a framework for international agencies to work on a response to the Tsunami. It had convened a meeting in Paris from March 3-8 that sought to establish a network of countries that could cooperate on Tsunami in the Indian Ocean. This meeting had been attended by two of the speakers at the ICTP meeting Francois Schindele (UNESCO, Paris) and Karim Aoudia (ICTP, Italy). Informally, I learnt of the impressions that they had of these meeting. The presentationof the Sri Lanka delegation (comprising a Diplomat (Prasad Kariyawasam) and Directors of the Meteorological, Acquatic Research and Geological Survey and a Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Moratuwa) is heavy on the technical side. The Sri Lankan delegation was at the center of attention given the grevious problems in Sri Lanka. It does seem that issues of vulnerability reduction did not receive much attention here. The next meeting is due to be held in Mauritius in May.

The seminar was intended to initiate an ICTP contribution to disaster reduction. The Director of the ICTP underlined the large numbers who died and the need to response. The meetings was good at capturing the physics of tsunamis and the potential for various disciplines particularly geophysics to contribute to it. The afternoon session was focussed on Tsunami risk in the Adriatic seas and risk and vulnerability assessment locally. The ICTP hostel that I stayed was barely 10 meters from this sea. This part of the seminar highlighted the local expertise that could be drawn on in future ICTP work.

At the end, a communique from the meeting offered ICTP services in training and physics in support of the UNESCO sponsored international activities. Physcists of course find the science of earthquakes and tsunami warnings, more relevant than the areas of disaster preparedness or risk management or vulnerability reduction. I argued that if the objective was to help contribute to reducing the destructiveness of Tsunamis and other hazards, vulnerability reduction was the best investment followed by disaster preparedness. There can be warning systems but investments of time, effort and resources are now being overly dedicated to warning systems.

Tsunami Hazard on Monday March 28th, 2005

2005-03-28T10:25:00.000-08:00

An earthquake on March 28th, 2005 is being reported in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Northern Sumara. This earthquake at 8.2 on the Richter scale is considerably weaker than the
Tsunami of 9.3 on December 26th, 2004. As I write this, it is about 2 hours since the event and the news was just reported on BBC and CNN. At least some people in Sri Lanka are aware of this -

The earthquake observations of the USGS is given next followed by the Tsunami warning issued by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre.

-----------------------------------------------------
EARTHQUAKE MEASURING 8.2 ON RICHTER SCALE HAS OCCURED OFF NORTH SUMATRA IN INDIAN OCEAN at 11.09 pm local time

A great earthquake occurred at 16:09:37 (UTC) on Monday, March 28, 2005. The magnitude 8.2 event has been located in NORTHERN SUMATRA, INDONESIA. (This event has been reviewed by a seismologist.)

Magnitude 8.2
Date-Time Monday, March 28, 2005 at 16:09:37 (UTC)
= Coordinated Universal Time
Monday, March 28, 2005 at 11:09:37 PM
= local time at epicenter
Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones
Location 2.093°N, 97.016°E
Depth 30 km (18.6 miles) set by location program
Region NORTHERN SUMATRA, INDONESIA
Distances 205 km (125 miles) WNW of Sibolga, Sumatra, Indonesia
245 km (150 miles) SW of Medan, Sumatra, Indonesia
535 km (330 miles) WSW of KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia
1410 km (880 miles) NW of JAKARTA, Java, Indonesia
Location Uncertainty horizontal ± 6.1 km (3.8 miles); depth fixed by location program
Parameters Nst= 65, Nph= 65, Dmin=535.9 km, Rmss=0.85 sec, Gp= 61°,
M-type=moment magnitude (Mw), Version=6
Source USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)
Event ID usweax
SEE USGS REPORTS AT : http://www.prh.noaa.gov/ptwc/wmsg

-------------------------------------------------------
A TSUNAMI WARNING HAS BEEN ISSUED BY PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTRE

TSUNAMI BULLETIN NUMBER 001
PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER/NOAA/NWS
ISSUED AT 1629Z 28 MAR 2005

. TSUNAMI INFORMATION BULLETIN ...

AN EARTHQUAKE HAS OCCURRED WITH THESE PRELIMINARY PARAMETERS

ORIGIN TIME - 1610Z 28 MAR 2005
COORDINATES - 2.3 NORTH 97.1 EAST LOCATION - NORTHERN SUMATERA INDONESIA
MAGNITUDE - 8.5

EVALUATION
WARNING... THIS EARTHQUAKE HAS THE POTENTIAL TO GENERATE A WIDELY DESTRUCTIVE TSUNAMI IN THE OCEAN OR SEAS NEAR THE EARTHQUAKE. AUTHORITIES IN THOSE REGIONS SHOULD BE AWARE OF THIS POSSIBILITY AND TAKE IMMEDIATE ACTION. THIS ACTION SHOULD INCLUDE EVACUATION OF COASTS WITHIN A THOUSAND KILOMETERS OF THE EPICENTER AND CLOSE MONITORING TO DETERMINE THE NEED FOR EVACUATION FURTHER AWAY.

THIS CENTER DOES NOT HAVE SEA LEVEL GAUGES OUTSIDE THE PACIFIC SO WILL NOT BE ABLE TO DETECT OR MEASURE A TSUNAMI IF ONE WAS GENERATED. AUTHORITIES CAN ASSUME THE DANGER HAS PASSED IF NO TSUNAMI WAVES ARE OBSERVED IN THE REGION NEAR THE EPICENTER WITHIN THREE HOURS OF THE EARTHQUAKE.

Panel at New York Academy of Sciences

2005-03-06T08:54:00.000-08:00

About 25 science writers and others turned up for the panel at the New York Academy of Sciences - this is an austere, old four storey building located on the West side of Central Park in its "Museum Row" - it was good to meet with Laura Newman who put together the panel. She let me know that she searched a lot to find people with first hand experience of the Tsunami and she learned of me through Jeff Hecht of the New Scientist who had read my blog.

Dr. Siddharth Shah and Prof. Randall Marshall, both physicians were the rest of the panel. Siddharth was already in India at the presented some of his experiences with traumatized relief workers in Tamil Nadu. He is now offering counseling services to journalists in New York. Randall Marshall has been working with New York World Trade Center disaster victims and also others who were affected by it - he cited extensively from that literature and hopes to undertake a case study in a non-Western context in Sri Lanka. For the work in New York, their team was funded to $2 million by New York Times. For the present work, they are looking for funding for an initial visit from Foundations.

My presentation lasted for 45 minutes and I argued that the scale of the disaster was largely due to people's vulnerability and rather than due to the biophysical hazard it and that there was insufficient attention paid to vulnerability. This vulnerability could have been dramatically reduced if existing laws and policies had been followed and if the lessons learned from past disasters had been heeded. The marginalization of people, the stresses due to war and conflict and environmental degradation also contributed to severe death toll. Ultimately, it seems to be the case that the perverse lack of democratic accountability of rulers to its people so that it takes care of safeguards to reduce risk of such a basic need as freedom for disasters as the underlying cause for this disaster. I pointed out the neglect of local science, technology and services and the marginalization of local scientists and technologists as being a prime cause for the failure of disaster mitigation systems.

My plea to the writers was the need to cover scientific issues surrounding vulnerability, the need to pay attention to science and technology in poor countries and support of local capacity in Science and Technology.

"Understanding the Tsunami: What’s the Science That Led to It, What Do We Need to Do In Its Aftermath? "
at the New York Academy of Sciences .

Time: 6.30-9 pm on Monday, March 14th, 2005
Venue: New York Academy of Sciences2 East 63 Street
between Madison and 5th AvenuesNew York, NY 10021.
Tel: 212.838.0230

By SubwayView Subway Map Closest stops: N, R, W trains to Fifth Avenue; F train to 63rd Street; 4, 5, 6 trains to 59th Street.

This panel has been organized by the Science Writers in New York (SWINY).

Please RSVP to Laura Newman at newman@nasw.org (limited phone calls 212-664-0017, please) by March 7th. Please have a check for $20 made out to "SWINY" (this includes Indian hors d'oeuvres and drinks) and it is payable at the door. A subsidzed rate of $10 is afforded to students. Your RSVP stands for your agreement to pay, whether you attend or not.

Highlights of the Visit to Sri Lanka

2005-01-27T08:20:00.000-08:00

I had got to Sri Lanka one week after the disaster. A country of 20 million which was in dire straits had organized itself to bury the dead and feed, shelter and nurse the surviving. No one died of starvation. The doubling of deaths due to epidemics that WHO warned of did not come to pass.

But it was also clear that the relief efforts needed coordination, better targetting and there needed to be a better way to link those who wanted to help with those who could use the help.

In addition, there was a great need for credible scientific information of new hazards, threats and of ways to deal with the Tsunami's aftermath. It was to the tasks of helping organize, provide credible scientific information and actual relief that I applied myself.

I was able to visit four of the worst affected districts, talk with the survivors, and to that band of the selfless who materialized to help with no publicity, organizing themself efficiently and resourcefully. This also set the stage for future contributions to relief.

Without any solicitation, many friends pitched in when they found that I was going to Sri Lanka and they asked me that the funds be be given directly. Their generosity enabled me to build up links with six groups that did relief work with little resources. I can recommend these groups for your support, being confident that 100% of funds shall be used to support these groups in a a transparent and acountable manner. If you wish to support these efforts please write to slmohn@sltnet.lk which is the email address of the Sri Lanka Meteorology, Oceanography and Hydrology Network.

Our work of building networks of professionals through the Internet continued through the first month. We have been able to build dossiers responding directly to the needs for relief and reoconstruction. For example, how does one build an emergency water treatment system on the cheap, is there a real risk of epidemics, what can one do regarding the flooding that was compounding relief.

We tried hard to communicate information through the websites and even more widely through a 30 minutes presentation that I taped for Sri Lanka's MTV and through the newspapers. One of the articles was carried in todays Island.

The three weeks that I spent in Sri Lanka helped build a base for programs of direct assistance. At the end, with 38,000 dead, ten times that many homeless, hundreds of thousands of livelihoods compromised and the infrastructure in tatters, there is such need that it shall take many decades to mitigate even in the best of circumstances.

Visit's End

2005-01-25T09:19:00.000-08:00

I am due to go back to New York in two days. By the time, I got here, the needs for food, water and shelter finally seemed to be be addressed by the community groups. The critical need was the lack of organization, information and coordination – there were more funds promised and collected on behalf of the victims. Now the compelling need is to ensure transparency, equity and combating the inevitable problems associated with money.

I tried to help community and student groups whose instinctive response had been to throw all resources into the urgent problems in the first week and that could leverage other resources – financial, scientific, personel, office skills and were handicapped by small amounts of funds.

The affected areas are the Northern Province, Eastern Province and the Southern Province. I was not able to go to the North due to lack of time and difficulty of access – Western Province is relatively well taken care of given its proximity to Colombo. I worked out of the Center of the Island in Kandy – made contacts in the East, South-East and South-West and in the Western Province and Southern Province.

The community and University groups that I have related to are are a good network to work with from New York.

Eastern University,
Kalmunai - Human Care Foundation, ,
South-Eastern University,
University of Peradeniya,
University of Ruhuna
Coir Products Manufacturers Association
Akurana Womens Welfare Association

They span the affected area, know the terrain, are already active and are reliable. Whats been done here is to help clear some bottlenecks and open up lines of communication. I wished I stayed here longer so that I could go to the Trincomalee, Mullaitivu, and Jaffna in the North. The needs there shall be different in all likelihood given the excesses of war.
According to http://www.recoverlanka.net/ the highest mortality from the Tsunami is in the sparsely populated Mullativu districts.

It has been an exhausting schedule – one accomplishes only a small fraction of what one wants to. 75% of Sri Lanka’s coasts and 14 districts were affected but I only visited four districts. I wanted to meet with a variety of people in Colombo but I fared poorly at that - having misplaced my notebook temporarily on the other side of the island. The game in Colombo had changed with the big money coming in. The folks of interest were now being courted by more powerful and persuasive interests.

I need to return too. Things are piling up and I should not be on “vacation” for too long from work – its been 3 weeks after the Xmas break and I had already been in Sri Lanka for a month in November. So I take the plane out tomorrow and shall have to rethink about how to carry on with this while doing my regular work. This visit shall help me contribute to the relief, rehabiltation and reconstruction work while being grounded.

Coir Products Manufacturers Association

2005-01-24T10:39:00.000-08:00

Coir Products Manufacturers Association

We have a good contact (through Mano/Rajan of IRC) a senior Engineer Lakshman. Tillakaratne who works through the coir producers association (Coir – is from coconut and the coastal belt is full of coconut trees). That network of the coir producers association is well positioned to support. Their intentions to resurrect livelihoods with funds to make repairs to equipment and support with low-cost housing is appropriate. They cover quite a span of territory particularly in the Southern coastal belt.

I went to Katunayake Airport via Colombo to meet with Lakshman Tillakaratne - he was gracious enough to meet even though I was late 8.45 pm or so. We chatted a bit – getting to know each other – he is of the view point that the national interest is being lost in many of the post-Tsunami operations – that data is being collected by foreign operatives in Sri Lanka which shall then not be made public - that reconstruction was being organized to profit vested interests – we had discussed earlier by telephone that the Coir Products Manufacturers Association could be useful in resurrecting livelihoods and providing households to those affected. He shall also provide support for the “net to people” – the IT person in his Colombo office is willing to volunteer time for the IRC operations.

University of Ruhuna

2005-01-24T10:09:00.000-08:00

I made contact with Dr. Sanath Hettiarachhi of the University of Ruhuna – he is of the Botany department there and is one of the leaders of the disaster relief efforts. I have know Kanthi Yapa of Ruhuna physics for a long time and since she was in Florida on her sabbatical she put me in contact with Sanath.

They have been collecting all the data on the impacts on the Galle, Matara and Hambantota districts. They had been doing water quality analysis – UofR is well equipped for this. In the science faculty, 26 students are known to have been affected and would be needing assistance. The losses were such as loss of parents or their livelihoods such as fishing gear, copra machines. He identified the greatest need for a counseling service and scholarships in dealing with the losses of the University students – although his focus was on the Science faculty and the University itself – they are of course interested in the regional problems.

A team of Chinese scientists are due in Matara to study the role of mangroves on the Tsunami’ s impacts and he is due to go around with them and prepare a report. He agreed to participate in the IRC’s and will register shortly. I suggested that the requests for scholarships and livelihood assistance may be the sort of thing that may find quick support from people who want to help.

Internet Resource Centers

2005-01-23T11:15:00.000-08:00

An update on the IRC's - Recoverlanka and Geolanka

As I come to the end of the visit, I could see that the websites that I had left behind and had been only able to contribute to only irregularly from Sri Lanka had developed dramatically.

The IRC team so far have made impressive strides into the development of the websites. The content, the functionality and the presentation have all improved dramatically due to Mano, Neil and Vidhura. Geethanjali and Jayantha had been maintaining inputs on the water side. Ruvini had kept updating the GIS maps and providing support with contacts. The weather team (Ale, Emily, Ousmane, Brad, Ousmane, Anji) had been brilliant at reconciling conflicting forecasts amidst crazy weather and lack of data. Charmini had come in to do the public relations work. Mano had been bringing in new folks and leading topics of discussion which are essential for 3R. Janaki, Manjula, Siraj and Zeenas have been providing support for the mapping, the programming, the PR and so on. Zeenas has been dealing with the local press. Vidhura had been able to establish contacts with TAFFREN (task force for reconstruction), brought in a few friends to help with programming and with Samitha had been able to turn the site into the best portal for data, maps and statistics on the Tsunami’s impact on Sri Lanka. My visit to Sri Lanka has opened up contacts with about a dozens that can yield to the good grounding of the operations in the affected areas.

So its been a first month which has yielded results that we could not have imagined – something made possible by the generosity of all involved so that they could work with strangers on a cause – something that only evolved in the way that things can happen on the internet. But we need to transition now – we all cannot keep going on in the same way for too long – we all have other tasks that need attention. So we have to strategize to figure out how best to evolve keeping with our resources and our limitations.

Net to People Operations

2005-01-23T11:07:00.000-08:00

My intention when coming to Sri Lanka had been to open up field offices / Information and Resource Centres for the affected has not been successful – opening offices need a fixed attention for a few days and a budget in hand – a reliable, suitable and motivated person to take charge and confidence that the office will be sustained.

I did get verbal agreement for support for an interim office at my former work place (IFS) but afterwards, I was turned down. That was frustrating from the point of view of losing precious time. I had also volunteered to support the Welfare Society at IFS in undertaking relief work and I am waiting to hear back.

One of the contacts that I renewed here ( a batchmate of mine from University who is a DGM (Marikkar) at Lanka Transformers has promised to follow through with setting up office. He is extremely busy – LT is now a company with the biggest turnovers in the country after the banks and they have many holding companies. One of the holding companies is Lanka Online (lanka.com) and the plan is that we have to come up with proposals for them to formally accept at a company level – they would hopefully help with sites in the South, East and North and they have an office in Colombo at Ward Place. Still Marikkar is trying to do what he can in spite of being loaded – he has already traveled with medical supplies to the affected area – he also lost his wife’s relatives – the children with them survived – the parents had gone visiting to the Eastern Coast.

I am also going to look for funds for at least one office that can be bootstrapped off the existing project office that I have in Kandy. I am due to interview two persons tomorrow (both graduate students) who may turn out to be a interim hire to help with disaster work in my existing office – at the moment, the staff in the office have rallied around – leaving their regular duties – they have responded magnificently – but they need to get back to their regular work - I am spending tomorrow morning with them before leaving to Colombo in the afternoon before continuing on to the Airport.

My visit has been one that has been one of rewarding internal travel – still unfulfilled attempts to start up offices - of trial balloons that did not fly – of some good and useful contacts - trying to maintain contact with the IRC team geo/recoverlanka - useful coordinating work with the Polgolla staff.

Akurana Womens Welfare Association

2005-01-22T10:31:00.000-08:00

All of this organizing so far have largely been men doing work – there are hardly any women from affected regions playing a decision making role – I think there is a serious problem here – there are a just scattering of the missionary type of women working. One that I have not been able to address – due to lack of opportunities and existing organizations that are active.

Eventually, I canvassed my mother who is a part of this organization to undertake a visit to the affected areas and to look into women’s issues in the camps and so on. To see whether they can arrange to help particular women and arrange to give voice to the problems. The Akurana Womens Welfare association has survived and carried out some impressive tasks with no money – it started out three years ago with about 30 women - they have started a household composting program that is pretty needed here as the place urbanizes, vocational training in dress-making. What is impressive is that all this is done with no money – not even by Sri Lanka standards – the standard operating procedure for fund-raising in Akurana is for a bunch of men to approach those who can afford some largesse – that technique does not work for a womens group. Yet, funds is something that holds them back. They meet several times a year at my parents place. Anyway, awareness of the issues surrounding women organizing in a conservative culture is undoubtedly their strength and so lets hope that they shall be able to follow through on the visits to the affected areas and subsequent follow up.

Kirinda, Hambantota District

2005-01-20T15:48:00.000-08:00

The people who lived close to the shore in Kirinde had been severely affected. Their houses were all broken up - the area that we passed through seemed largely a muslim fishing community - their was a school there. In the distance was the Kirinde temple on the hill top. I had visited here in 1996 and I was so taken with its setting that I had promised to myself to come back. The circumstances of my return was heartbreaking. The approach to the Kirinde coast is filled with broken boats - literally into pieces. There is a stench that is noticeable as you get close. We saw a van belonging to the University of Ruhuna collecting water samples.

As elsewhere, the fishing industry suffered the worst. The Kirinde fisheries harbour was in shambles and really needs reconstruction.

There had been a large dredger in the Kirinde Harbour - one of the two that the Sri Lanka fisheries harbour corporation operaties - and that is now stranded in the interior. Many of its drums were spilled all over the harbour.

Clearly, the fishing industry is going to need major rehabilitation - its taken the most grievious damage and the fisherfolks have been badly hit.

Samir Shah backed up by a group called Architecture for Humanity has taken on the task of redesigning for Kirinda.

Tangalle, Hambantota District

2005-01-20T15:35:00.000-08:00

The sea had flooded into the shops in Tangalle town taking away their stock and in the case of shops with thir rear to the sea – destroying their rear – some of the shops had only their front façade left. The fisheries harbour at Tangalle had been damaged as well although not as badly as at Kirinde and Hambantota. Facing the sea is the Tangalle Rest House, a grand old masonry building in the style of the colonial period that had been spared although it had been inundated. Here is the view from the Rest House. Its also been spared on account of the fisheries harbour building in front of it. We had lunch here - the place had taken a bad hit and I think we were the first customers back.

Soon thereafter there were five men who came to imbibe a bottle of black and white whiskey who got more arrack and other eats for lunch. The money in the reconstruction work has drawn types other than those sensitized to the suffering around.

The Tangalle fisheries harbour building has been badly mangled and it was without its roof. One large fishing boat had been carried up a hill and deposited on its side mercifully without much damage. Most other smaller boats had been broken up.

By the time, we got to Tangalle it was 1 pm and we took a decision to return to Kandy via Embilipitiya thus missing out on visiting University of Ruhuna.

Hambantota District

2005-01-20T04:04:00.000-08:00

Hambantota District

Zeenas, Janaki, Manjula and I went to the Hambantota district in the Southern Coast with the driver Weerasinghe - to get there we started at 5 am from Kandy and the journey was South-Easterly - we got there in 6 hours via Badulla, Wellawaya and Tissamaharama – this is the district in the Southern Province that was badly affected and is also most impoverished. I have made my contacts with some of the folks there – and I did see first hand the needs – the President had been in town the same day as us, the Prime Minister is from this area, the government agents office were full of UN and other agency vehicles – the government officials were there in large force. Clearly this area is likely to get its due attention in the way that governments give.

The question is whether those in the most dire need will get taken care of. It was hard to see families just set up in tents over the uncleared rubble. The situation is particularly bad in the townships of Kirinde, Hambantota and Tangalle – towns and urban areas it seemed were set up in a disaster prone way. If one talks to people in detail – there is need everywhere – from writing letters to the government, getting letters from the post when you do not have an address, translating, getting it type written, dealing with out documents such as birth certificates, ID cards, death certificates, bank statements, deeds and so on all of it essential to deal with the government is a huge problem for those worst affected.

In Hambantota, the medical needs are being met – the needs according to several relief workers are for temporary housing, clean up of contaminated water sources for support of institutions such as places of worship (in most places they were the first responders to disasters, counseling and “moral support”. The death toll has been heavy and large sections of the townships particularly the poor and the fishers had been just destroyed. The harbour still showed boats strewn around.

We crossed with the contact that I had and did not meet him – between Ambalantota and Hambantota and then we decided that the meeting may not work well. I am going to be in touch by phone and shall pass on my contacts to Iqbal – with some money that he can use there – Iqbal and I are in sync regarding the need to respond and also to leverage the resources that others have for maximum impact, to work at the brasstacks always looking to empower the field workers – Iqbal's wife is from Hambantota – she has lost relatives – so he may be better situated to make contacts and try to help in establishing an office there and thereafter sustaining it.

Animals and Scientists

2005-01-20T01:36:00.000-08:00

Humans in Sri Lanka were surprised that land animals did not die in large numbers. They had all gone to high ground and indeed there was play on this when it came to faulting the failures in warning systems in Sri Lanka.

On the way from Kirinda to Hambantota, we had to pass through the Bundala National Park - this is part of a network of bird sanctuaries that host the transcontinental migrants from Northern Asia in search of warmer weather in winter. Although this was the peak of winter, the usual throngs of migrant birds were not there. However, this is still an extraordinarily rich place for birds and every few minutes we kept sighting a range of birds at close range.

When we got into the park, which runs down the coast, the ranger, held us back until this lone male elephant, went away on its own. Inside we saw jackals and other birds and yes, there was no losses here except for the landscape and for the tidal flats that had been inundated by the Tsunami wave. Small changes in terrain made a big difference as to the Tsunami's impact and all this needs to be considered when hazard zonation is done. Here, we have Janaki, the Ranger, Manjula and Zeenas on top of a promontory barely 20 feet from the sea all trying to discern the sea's mystique - a place untouched by the Tsunami due to its elevation.

Polgolla Team

2005-01-19T11:21:00.000-08:00

Much of the work in Sri Lanka was supported by the NRMS team at Polgolla - Zeenas, Manjula, Janaki and Siraj. trying to maintain contact with the IRC team geo/recoverlanka - useful coordinating work with the Polgolla staff (Zeenas, Manjula, Janaki and Siraj) in our Kandy offices – they have made good contributions to our work - in particular, Zeenas has been leading efforts at communicating to the Sri Lankan mass-media, producing information briefs that were sent out to the press and also arranging a presentation one of the national TV stations (MTV) for me. Manjula and Janaki have contributed to mapping operations of various kinds such as current weather, Tsunami risk, to constructing two emergency water treatment units. Siraj has been keeping the website going and tending to many pc helpdesk tasks. Manjula, Zeenas and Janaki joined in visiting Hambantota. We have missed our GIS specialist Upamala rather badly as she is on maternity leave.

Three of four graduates who were called for interview with barely a days notice turned up at Polgolla with degrees in physical sciences, electrical engineering and computer science – all from the University of Peradeniya. All three seemed recruitable so they are waiting for letters of reference for hiring.

This way, others in the office and myself can get back to our regular work faster – there are deadlines pending – we have a project on climate change in the plantations sector that ended on Jan 1 and we need the reports, the papers, the accounts and all that out immediately.

On TV and the Archaeologist

2005-01-17T11:32:00.000-08:00

My visit to Colombo was in a rush - Zeenas had given me 20 hours notice that I would be given a 30 minute slot on national TV station called MTV
on a program called "Let Us Rebuild". Having never done TV before, I was in a tizzy as to how to prepare - and what to really talk about. The anchors were all visiting the affected areas and essentially I had to just talk to the cameras. I thought over what I was going to say on the way to the TV station and it was all overwhelming trying to get the content right, trying to toe the line for a private station, trying to keep the audiences attention and trying to sort out how one does things differently for TV. The only preparation that I had was attending a session at the AGU meeting in San Francisco about two weeks prior about the Scientist and the Media.

The producer, who arranged this, Zeenas husband, had told me that I need to keep coming back to the theme "let us rebuild". They had to "patch up" my face as they could and after a ponderous start, I was told that I got into my flow. I ended up contextualizing the current disaster in light of the lessons from the last several in Sri Lanka's history and debunking three myths
a. The disaster could have been averted if a few scientists had done their jobs.
b. An early warning system shall take care of future problems.
c. That now that there were international funds that the public can leave matter to these experts and government officials.

I really asked for better support for science and technology and more sensible disaster management.

Eventually, I ran over time by 15 minutes and I had to rush or even skip throgh the punch lines that I had prepared. There was another taping that needed the studio.

The taping is going was edited a few days ago and I think this is going to be telecast in a day or two.

I did meet with Dr. Prematillake at the Post Graduate Institute of Archaeology of the University of Kelaniya – he had just returned from Hambantota – explaining why he had a pillow and sheeting in his room along with samples of pollen, teak tree rings and the only and entire laboratory of paleo-ecology in Sri Lanka in a rather small room - one of their students had lost parents and the had been away there for 5 days working to build homes. Also, being ever the scientists, he had stopped in various places along the way to collect samples of what the Tsunami wave brought up – he said that this was the only chance to collect deep sea pollen – this guy works on Pollen – very modest, very unassuming - – he has dated pollen and climate in Horton plains going back to 24,000 years and I only learnt of his work from the literature last year. Anyway, he is going to do this analysis of the minerals that have come up from the sea.

South-Eastern University

2005-01-11T10:00:00.000-08:00

The Vice Chancellor (Eastern University) called up VC/South-Eastern University and set up an appointment for us – we had low expectations SEU had been established a few years back – the work of a charismatic politician who had done much to raise the profile of Eastern muslims - the SEU was set up as a University for that area – this was all in part of developing that region – however the University had been largely in the news for its failings – but we were pleasantly surprised at the warmth and enthusiasm of the VC/ the acting Registrar (Mr. Thayoob) and the head of the English Language Teaching Unit – amidst all the bottlenecks that they faced – the University Engineer was out – the bridge reaching the University had been under reconstruction and the temporary bridge was showing signs of being unpassable (we left out van and went on in another smaller van) across the bridge in heavy rain – this area is flooded. The internet access had frequent failures and their website is dated and its too busy. They had council meetings too often in Colombo – it’s a long way to Colombo from here.

They had begin the work of developing information support – they had designed a questionnaire - they had it reviewed by folks in Sociology at Peradeniya. So it was a pleasant visit – and something that we can build on.

We were not able to meet with student groups – this is one of the worst affected areas and the students were largely from that area – this is a University that can do more and needs to do more in this disaster response.

We left the meeting, soon after and both Iqbal and I wished we had spent more time there – we were in a rush to get back not far too late – I was still under jet lag. We reached Kandy at 1 am.

The Kalmunai Situation

2005-01-11T09:51:00.000-08:00

Kalmunai Relief Committee

Kalmunai was the area in Sri Lanka that was affected first by the Tsunami and suffered the heaviest losses. Indeed, the worst affected region in terms of deaths is the eastern coast of the Ampara district (just is below Batticaloa in the Eastern Province) which stretches from Pottuvil in the South to Kalmunai in the East. They had serious problems – and were not well organized – they did not even have the resources or the access that the Eastern University had in Batticaloa. Also as they were initially neglected by the Sri Lankan national media they had created a website
to get their information.

I contacted two persons who were dealing with the flooding situation in the Amparai district. I met one of this a Dr. Maheez who is in regular life the Dean of the Faculty of Unani Medicine at the Institute of Indigenous Medicine of the University of Colombo. He had located himself in Kalmunai and was coordinating relief work – Kalmunai is one of the affected towns located in the middle of the Ampara Districts coast line – teams of workers would come in volunteering from outside – there was a JVP team from Gampaha, University groups, community groups – they were fulsome in praise for my own village for the rapid, repeated response in terms of provision, help in burials, etc. This had been a surprise to me – I know the folks in my village as hard-charging money-minders and accumulators and its been pleasant as to how immediate and generous they were. I guess I must have also underestimated the power of information – my village is a crossroads of a different sorts – people go out from here to set up trading posts in the breadth of the country and now with telecommunication facilities being what it is – we have instant first hand reports from all areas – Akurana is far better informed of what goes on due to this personal links than many others who are less cosmopolitan and tend to get there news from TV. I think all this shows the great power of credible information from trusted sources.

To support Maheez, there was also another person, whom I know from my work in the climate field a Senior Lecturer in Agricultural Engineering at the University of Peradeniya (Dr. Mowjood). There were the two persons coordinating the effort in Maruthomunai area (suffered about 4000 deaths). They were beginning to get organized with offices, computers and so on. I spent some time convincing them that they needed to connect the computers to the Internet with dial up – they are working through the website
- but this is not an organizational tool at the moment – there was a young technical student there who was running the office and he seemed capable o keeping things going. I provided $300 and gave them a digital camera – suggesting that they use it for infrastructure for organization. The key need they had was for people who give technical advice to the volunteers on how to deal with contaminated sites, how to do low-cost road repair, priorities in all these, IT support etc. When things settle down and they are less busy, I shall try to follow up there.

From Batticaloa to Kalmunai

2005-01-11T06:02:00.000-08:00

The road from Batticaloa to Kalmunai would have run south along the coast line - we wanted to go to Kalmunai as well - but we kept conflicting reports as to the state of repair of the causeway that bridges across a lagoon at Padirippu. Yoga our every courteous rest house keeper had been down that road - but could not get to Padirippu to see his wife's brother's family who had suffered losses in the family - indeed, the relief operations were all handicapped by then 14 days into the disaster by the lack of attention by the government in Colombo (and it does see like that from the East when one considers that during wartime, the army only took one day to erect a temporary bridge in the vicinity) - Yoga had perched his wife side-saddle on a scooter and gone via a circuitious badly maintained interior road so that they could console the bereaved and he returned early the next morning so that he could take care of the guest house that also was used as a site for relief supplies, as a base for teams of relief workers and as a refuge for professors from Eastern University whose homes had been damaged.

By the 10th the bridge was still broken and we too like Yoga diverted our 15 seater from Kalawanchukuddi past the army check point and few hundred meters away to an ltte check point and went via Mandur. The roads in the LTTE areas are badly run down - the government does not do maintenance. Groups of people, mostly women, stay patiently for buses that arrive with no regularity if at all. The roads were only suitable for four wheel drive vehicles. But Naushad perserved on - in pouring rain. This was an area that had been flooded by the 15th of December and the continuing rain was leaving the rice crop in poor shape in the middle of the main cultivation season.

The tigers had monumments at roundabouts to those who had committed suicide on behalf of the cause. The monument would have large framed color photographs of the bust of the deceased grim-faced men in their youth but it would not have any religious
signs - indeed, if anything, the one that I found fascinating had four youthful water maidens arching out below these grim photos.

This is all INGO country - they have all planted signs of territory here - it does not cost them much to put up their signs. The government has abandoned these areas. The infrastructure is in ruins even by standards in rural Sri Lanka. They all manage here precariouly. The buffalo is as much at home here as the herd.

There are no telephones here - I think that those who advocate sophisticated early warning systems should visit forgotten ignored places such as Mandur. What one learns is that war kills - silently - lack of transport kills - lack of proper hospitals kills - lack of telecommunications kills - and all this is far more improtant than some super sophisticated early warning system. Here the people who were facing disasters aftermath were trying to do the best they could without even the most basic infrastructure - the simple things such as draining water out - gulley bowsers to evacuate septic tanks - preventive measures for anti-malaria.

We eventually got to Maruthamunai now back on the coastal road which had take the heaviest hit. Even 12 days afterwards, it was the local efforts that had led the relief, the burials, the recovery.

Palamunai in Batticaloa District

2005-01-10T21:14:00.000-08:00

Palamunai is about 4 km south of Batticaloa beyond Kattankudy. Neer Mohan of the EUSL was showing us to some camps - we turned towards the sea from the main road which was not affected. Going into the interior we stop at "tent camp" . There are about 30 tents here - each of thm an abode for one household. There are Korean or Japanese signage on the blue tents but there is also signage of more recent vintage claiming it to be "'donated by Hisbullah" who is a politician.

The tents are on the grounds of a mosque. We stop to talk to the camp in-charge who is also the Grama Niladhari - which is a sort of village representitve of the government. The camp seems well organized - he says that they are getting adequate supplies - yet, he worries about the impact the tent lives has on people - they get lazy, socialize in ways that he would not aprove - and so on. He also says that while the government and individuals provide provisions, it all needs to be cooked and they have to organize the displaced into this. It all seems unsympathetic to me until he says that he is a survivor too - he had ended up riding the third wave - the most brutal one - on a plank - claiming that his training in his youth as a reserve policemen where he learnt not to fight the water but to steer himseelf saved him. He was deposited somewhere far away by the wave. He must have been in his fifties.

There are others listening in. They are all happy to talk - this is not the practiced converstations of town-dwellers. They are a mixture of fisher folks, farmers and traders here. They are Ok with being photographed. One of them is an older man in sixties and he has an otherworldly look - he says that its all in the hands of God. We wanted to see what the interior was like so we went in with this man in the jeep. Naushad and Jayasundera had been listening to stories on their own inside the camp and even the worldly Naushard found it jarring to be offered tea in one tent.

As you go close to the sea, the houses get to be more and more packed. The people like to live by the sea. Sometimes back when I was at Peradeniya some of my colleagues did a study of water and sanitation in Kattankudy and found that all the wells were contaminated rather badly. The practice here is when one daughter gets married the parents either leave their house and go elsewhere or build a new house. Land was getting subdivided into smaller and smaller plots and the distances between sanitation pits and wells were shrinking. Settlements such as this was worst near the coast and being separated by water on both sides and there was ethnic tensions magnified by the civil war so they could not easily build outwards.

The devastation here was similar to that in Navalkudy - the damage extended to about a km interior intensifying as you got to the coast. Our guide showed us his house - shattered and beyond disrepair - some how his chimney and water tank stood. His house must have been the first facing the sea. It was set about 50 meters inland and the land where it stood was about 5 meters above the sea. All the houses around it going to about two blocks interior were damaged. His daughters had built houses towards the sea neighbouring his - all three houses were damaged beyond disrepair. He had lost a granddaughter but the others had escaped. How that might happened can only be understood in the realm of fantasy. He knows the sea - he is a fisherman sailing the Eastern seas from Pottuvil to China Bay in Trincomalee spending up to three days away at a time. He is detailed in describing the waves - the three waves how it receded, how it reared up, how they all tried to run, its color (green and then white) and the immensity of it.

Most of the houses by the coast are that of the poor - trapped in many ways - and they live precariously in places that are too crowded for proper santitation, defenceless against even a cyclone, ignored away from the bustle of neighbouring center of Kattankudy - where the shops and many and are stocked well.

The Disaster Management Centre of the Eastern University

2005-01-10T20:52:00.000-08:00

We got back and after breakfast (the food in Batticaloa is different - Iddli and Thosai) , Mano takes us to the University at Chenkaladi which is north of Batticaloa. We head to the Agricultural Engineering Department workshop - Mano introduces us to Thividarshanan is a junior academic who had previously developed a sand filled filter to extract the hardness of the water around Batticaloa and so he helps setting up the Water Treatment plant, the leaks there are minor - Jayasundera has as usual been workmanlike in doing all the fittings - so we load up the unit in the van - Ravi drops by and he has helped arrange for water quality analysis with the Chemistry and Microbiology departments. Mano, "Thiviyan" and the rest of us went to the "Disaster Management Centre" of the University - which normally is the Nursing Unit located in Batti town.

The University is a major institution in Batti and the VC is also a key player along with the government agent and the Bishop. Ravi has to attend a meeting at 11 am with the INGO - the NGO establishments have not proliferated so that now there are new categories such as International NGO. They travel around in new 4-wheelers of the latest vintages.
These meetings between local officials and the INGO are dominated by the INGO who are more voluble compared with local officials. But the funds come through the INGO and they need to be supported, their work eased, their bottlenecks taken care of, responsbilities narrowly confined, arrangements made so that it helps them in such matters as to maximize travelling so as to disburse travel claims among their staff.

Thiviayan and Jayasundera set up the water treatment unit here and thereafter they organize the transport of water from the refugee camps. We meet two others - Kumuthini, a Senior Lecturer in Agriculture who recognises me from a Teaching Methods Course we had attended at the University of Peradeniya about 8 years ago and Sriskandarajah, the University Engineer, who was perhaps a few years behind me as an undergraduate in Engineering at Peradeniya.

They are all short-changed here - without both available vehicles or funds to purchase things quickly - Iqbal clears that bottleneck by providing $20. Later, they do the treatment with Alum and Chlorine and visually the murky water that came in from the camps had cleared up. Later they would do the laboratory tests for water quality before they distribute.

They must have been happy with this unit for after returning to Kandy, I see that they have put up information on their website.

The University had been allocated the task of information management in dealing with the emergency. There are rows of about a dozen chairs set up facing each other. Sitting on one side are University volunteers, on the other are the affected who had misssed being surveyed in the camps somehow. The volunteers fill out two printed survey forms that had been developed at EUSL and is about 30 or 40 questions long. There is no queue here. There are also informants from the GA's office who supply additional data here. There are Senior Lecturers upstairs taking care of processing the data.

Inside, there is a constant supply of tea - in one room and then in another room a communication center - essentially a room with a telephone and fax. In another room by the side, there is a computer room and its here that one of the Assistant Lecturers has been leading the development of the website www.eusl.info. He is marshalling the support of many of his collegues overseas in the site development. The University here like in other parts of Sri Lanka essentially prepares people for the outside - they all seem to leave - the problem is sharper in Batticaloa, contested territory, in a Civil War - the protagonists are sensible enough to give that war a backseat while people try to recover.

The limitations that they have (lack of transport, constant stoppages of vehicles by those with guns, the lack of resolution of minor problems, the lack of financial authority and access) all seem obscene against the crucial work they do here.

The Batticaloa Lagoon

2005-01-10T14:54:00.000-08:00

Manobhavan took us along to show the ways in which the mangroves, lagoons and the condition of the mouth of the Batticaloa lagoon affected the Tsunami's impacts. He has presented all this at. On the way, on the inside of the lagoon we met with one of the Universities council members - he was an eyewitness to the Tsunami from his second story building - watching it come in three times - his house particularly the first floor suffered and the car that was in his garage was later found in a wetland some distance away. I took this picture with Naushad, Jayasundera, Iqbal and Mano outside his house.

The damage here was tremendous and boats had been smashed as much as houses and cars. We found three bodies partially buried in the beach. The US marines were doing something in the lagoon and I saw some of them dashing about in speed boats. Here is Jayasundera who wanted a picture with the American warship.

Eastern University

2005-01-10T09:46:00.000-08:00

Eastern University (Student Faculty volunteer groups)

The Vice Chancellor (Prof. Raveendranath) informed us that water treatment was the key need - one of my ex-colleagues (Iqbal) at the Institute of Fundamental Studies had taught there previously and he was friends with Ravi. He let us know that water treatment was a key need in the refugee camps. So we fabricated a student/faculty design for an emergency water treatment facility and took it along there – this was handed over to the agricultural engineering staff of the University (Manobahavan Manoharan). They set up a demonstration in the Disaster Management Centre in Batticaloa – and they have undertaken water quality testing so that we can feel sure about the safety of the unit. They are organizing themselves to replicate this unit – see their website

They had many volunteers to do the work and so on but no quick way for petty cash expenditures such as buying some water holders, transport and so on. This seemed to be a shame and we gave Ravi some funds for related expenses. We also gave them a digital camera which they put to good use to take pictures of the water treatment unit for their website.

The service that the University was providing for the coordinating group in Batticaloa was information support and expertise – they have set up a website with almost no resources (just one junior staff member pulling all his friends together. They surveyed in detail all those who were affected – this was going on even when we were there. All this was going on an area that has been neglected rather badly due to war – they still have many hindrances – bureaucratic, financial and just the frequent reminders of war – checkpoints - its tragic that they spend some resources on this pantomine – for two years they are not even fighting - while the people whom they fight in the name off are in such dire need.

Eventually, we had a discussion with the VC on the future action.

Getting to Batticaloa

2005-01-09T16:56:00.000-08:00

I got to Batticaloa on the East Coast on the 9th of January driving down the hills from Kandy almost directly East. See this map. We had a late start around 11 am. For the journey, there was Iqbal ( a plant scientist at the Institute of Fundamental Studies), Naushad - a daring driver held back only by his 15 seater van and Jayasundera who had worked with Manjula and Janaki to put together an emergency water treatment plant. We have removed one seat to accomodate the water treatment plant and we fit in comforably in the van.

The landscape changes from steep green mountains with distant vistas of irrigation tanks and paddy fields in the middle of the main cultivation season to the rolling plains punctuated by outcroppings of hillocks and water works. See photo. Its been rainy heavy. After about 70 km we pass the Maha Oya Junction where you choose to turn to Ampara or Batticaloa. One passess several army and police checkpoints and then two LTTE checkpoints and then government check points to reach Batticaloa. The checking is cursory - the two barrels which are part of the water treatment plant draw attention - Naushard is the one to be questioned he is able to close conversations quickly by claiming that he is taking Doctors to the Coast.

After Maha Oya, it seems that the NGO's are signposted more than the LTTE. The roads remain passable although the infrastructure in the Tiger areas are poorer in this stretch. Even getting close to the coastal towns, such as Eravur, the infrastruture is still intact, the shops have goods, and people are getting about their business. The obvious signs initialy of what had happened here are the refugee camps that have now been set up either in schools, government offices, places of worship or in tent camps.

Iqbal knows the Acting Vice Chancellor of the Eastern University, Prof. Raveendranath well from his time as a Lecturer in the eastern university in its formative days and we visit with him - our primary contact - that job is prominent in Batticaloa and its not a job that has been safe or kind to its incumbent. Ravi has arranged to lodge us in the University guest house and introduced us to Dr. Manobhavan Manoharan of the Department of Agricultural Engineering to attend to us.

The guest house is full - there are teams of greek and portuguese doctors and relief workers to assess damage and to plan long-term work there, there are two Professors whose house was damaged. Yoga the guest house keeper has reserved two rooms for the four of us. Yoga had lost a brother or was it his brother-in-law south of Batticaloa and he had ridden in a circuitious way one evening to console and condole to Kalmunai on his bike and gotten back the next day - he runs a good operation.

Batticaloa is the town as well as the appellation for the district and a lagoon - and its on the coast and its lagoon is large and inland wetlands is extended - it is quite prominent if you look at a map of Sri Lanka (zoom in using geolanka or see image of Batticaloa Roads ).

I am up early - at 4 am - I try to write but the words dont come- Iqbal gets up too soon after and then we decide to go out for tea and to see first hand - Naushard is a sleep - we hitch a ride to the town with one of the drivers at the hotel - a few hotels are open, from where a three wheel driver takes us around - beyond the main bridge across the lagoon (Chenkaladi) and to a place that I recall as the road to Navalkudy which is a strip of land which stands between the lagoon and the sea. This took the full brunt of the carnage and about 80% of the people in some of the villages died.

As we approach the coast, the level of the carnage builds up - about 1 -km away there are signs of inundation of misplaced debris - boats inland, flooding and then vehicles broken up - its been two weeks since and the roads are clear, the bodies are gone, much has been put in place - yet as one gets closer passing some NGO offices, the Irrigation Department regional office, houses tilt unnaturally, doors frames are broken and then when you get to 250 meters from the beach, then the houses are just destroyed - as if some giant in a peevish fit would disarrange it all - Iqbal notices that the coconut trees and the mangroves continue to live and stand. Right around them is destruction. Houses collapsed. Electric posts bent into two around a coconut tree. This strip of land goes several kilometers before it gets to the moutn of the lagoon. However, the road has been washed off about 300 meter and it is unpassable even for a three wheeler. We stop walk the dunes see that some rare structures had done slightly better - but the design of these houses had no consideration to cyclones let alone Tsunamis. A cyclone had devastated Batti in 1978 and it had not really recovered from that yet.

The driver says that the waves reached 20 meters here - there is , a tower of some sort which has been truncated around that height - why that its peak would get lopped off is a mystery.

University of Peradeniya

2005-01-06T09:42:00.000-08:00

One of the places that I had the readiest access, where the students were mobilized and already organized was the University of Peradeniya ( I used to teach here). I also sought out other Universities. Given the information focus that we had with the Internet Resource Centers (IRC), it was good to build links with these groups. They have internet access frequently, and computers and have lots of local knowledge (particulary as they receive students from all regions) and they are at least nominally non-sectarian. They are also grossly underfunded.

Undergraduate groups in the University of Peradeniya had responded magnificently to the tragedy – they had gone in and done the work of clean up in places in the East (Batticaloa, Ampara) and South (Hambantota, Tangalle) in a selfless, organized and effective manner. The student work was initially by Medical students but thereafter joined by Engineering and other students. By the second week into the tragedy, the Engineering students had identified needs, and come up with low-cost designs and prototypes for water treatment, toilets, stoves and temporary housing. They dispatched these rapidly to all the places that I listed and more. I provided them with some funds and two digital cameras. The funds to be used for enabling transport, meals etc - The funds were routed through a faculty oversight committee – one of the chairs is prof. Keethi Walgama and I know from working there previously and I know that it shall be used well. I told them that we would like to have reports back and requested them to document there work as much as possible as it shall be then possible to raise additional funds. They are to report back to me.

I talked with some of the students and in the environmental engineering laboratory, the techinicians and students gave me their design for the water treatment plant.

On the 6th of January, the Engineering Faculty had organized a workshop on reconstruction. The press was there for the opening with the Vice Chancellor, Kapila Goonasekera. He stayed to the very end of the seminar going into lunch.

There had been other meetings and they are now acting in a concerted way to bring all the resources of the University to help with relief and reconstruction.

I made or renewed various other good contacts in the University in Peradeniya (Susantha Pathirana, TDMA Samuel, M. Ranaweera, SBS Abayakoon, Jayalath Edirisinghe, Keerthi Walgama, P. Wickramagamage, Lakshman Dissanayake, Mowjood, Mahinda Alahakoon, Ranjith Premalal De Silva, Giragama).

Getting Oriented

2005-01-04T16:24:00.000-08:00

I reached Sri Lanka last morning to see how I could assist in the aftermath of the Tsunami relief - for three weeks on leave from work - I found that there was a huge demand for scientific expertise from every direction - and while I am not a geologist, I am well situated to do much given our past work particularly with case study for Sri Lanka on hotspots project and a detailed proposal from last year for disaster risk idenification. I hope to also visit the coast inEast and South soon to see first hand.

In pursuit of the first objective
we set up websites to enable the traffic of email among many informally querying for ways to fund, ways to volunteer, request for assistance into an .

Two savvy techies - Vidhura Ralapanawe and Neil Devadasan are just working our of their heart on this - now we are trying to look for ways in linking up to people who are offline by helping to set up offices in afflicted areas and distributing content in printed form in Sinhala and
Tamil from the web.

Going to Sri Lanka

2004-12-31T13:14:00.000-08:00

Eventually, our website work was renamed as Internet Resource Centers by Mano Philips and we issued a media release about it. The task that we had take on was expansive and our resources were meager. We did not plan as to how to get it done but we just worked hard at it.

We also realized that we needed to help get funds to the people who were helping. So initially we had a focus on the relief efforts and we directed traffic to groups that were already set up.

On the 29th, I decided to go to Sri Lanka and so I booked a flight out on January 2nd. The objectives were to do what I could with relief, to identify groups that were actually undertaking work, and then also to set up offices to help with disseminating information from the Internet to the relief operations and getting information from the relief workers to the websites.

Building a Team via the Internet

2004-12-30T08:18:00.000-08:00

I had been also exchanging emails desperately and in two of my friends - Neil Devadasan and Vidhura Ralapanawe - I found common cause - they responded and together we expanded the website after moving it to ldeo to help responders throwing out our data, our work, published and unpublished and links to raise funds for the victims. We believed that it would be useful.

Having been studying the environmental side and the science and technology infrastructure in Sri Lanka for two decades. I know well about how that country deals with disasters. I had just completed a project on disaster risk identification and a proposal to do early warning systems. I have been studying how scientific information gets used in the climate arena to meet societal needs for five years now.

We worked feverishly - all three of us working sometimes till 4 am - essentially until we could no longer function - exchanging emails often - from our locations in Indianopolis, Poughkeepsie, and Palisades. We went public with the websites in a few days.

We also decided to brand the websites with recoverlanka and geolanka - the former to capture our wish and the content and the latter to reflect the interactive tools that Neil had developed for mapping. Later he added on database tools for people so that we can make all of the emails that were flying around requesting assistance organized into a database.

We were soon joined by many - Mano Philips from Toronto - who brought in a great wealth of experience and good judgement and took on an extraordinary share of the work including making dossiers for distribution and developing a dialogue on reconstruction - Ruvini Perera dealt with GIS work to punishing schedules - Geetha Selvendran and Jayantha Obeyesekera took over the disaster response on the water management side - my IRI colleagues, Anji, Ale, Brad, Ousmane, Emily kept up a watch on the weather that was so critical in the relief operations.

Responding to December 26th - the first days

2004-12-29T14:32:00.000-08:00

We inure ourself to agony to go on living.

I learnt to do that in the 1980's in Sri Lanka, as the civil war started little by little - you cannot carry all the the emotions, a few dead, then a dozen, libraries burnt, then a hundred killed in a bombing, in a landmine, a hijacking and so on.

We learn to put out such numbers hundreds, even thousands dead - we dealt with it - 60,000 they say is the cumulative toll of deaths in one of the two civil wars.

But its impacts sneaks upoun you when you listed to tales of torture (or do you call it abuse), sometime the cruelty that your friends are capable of or those you know are killed. You get blindsided by details. The killing of the judge of our drama in University - tortured and dumped into the western sea by helicopter. That shy and gentle guy who taught me to swim the sea in Trincomalee - because he dashed out of cover to save a child in the middle of crossfire leaving all his six feet many inches exposed - Sri Lanka's champion marksman leaving aside his guns to save a child. The eighteen torsos arranged like petals of a flower around the Universities pond - the pond was a dedication in a gentler time of the national University to that aesthete of an architect who bridged time and cultures and set a tone for the place from the beginning.

So I was slow on 9-11 to understand it all - it took me many hours - and during that time, we were all frantic just to get in touch with those close to the World Trade Center - and the absence of it in the horizon provoked a meditation for my commute to work. Perhaps it was best to grieve all at once.

So when the numbers of the dead from 12-26 started coming in at first, several hundred dead the first day, I was still functional and it was in this mode that I put together a website, trying to understand what this disaster was all about.

I was getting reports from home of people who were visiting the worst hit Eastern coast and also the north-eastern and southern coasts of the human cost.

The website that I put together in about 10 hours was picked up immediately. I had passed it on to scientists in Sri Lanka who obviously still had the job of trying to calm people. In calling home, people were not even sure that the whole island was going to fall apart in the first few days.

It was appreciated by disaster responders in Sri Lanka and Maldives in the first few days. Several of the scientists used it to provide accurate information that helped calm people over TV stations and in the media. Later when I visited Sri Lanka, I was told of its use in many instances.

It was picked up by the Earth Institute Website and then by many across the world and it was even highlighted on New York TV news. The Sri Lankan websites Lankatown and Lankapage helped propagate its contents.

In the third and fourth days afterwards, I just went numb. Even I could not deal with the scale as the death toll went about 7,000 and it was still climbing. There was so much that I wanted to say and do, but could not. I just scanned the world for all the news of Sri Lanka. And there was grim news from every side.