The Tsunami catastrophe which battered Sri Lanka in 2004 had a catastrophic impact on the southern, western, eastern and northern provinces of the country. Nearly two thirds of the country’s coastal belt, i.e. 13 administrative districts bore the brunt of the disaster.

Approximately 35, 000 lives were lost while 5000 were reported missing and 95,000 others were deprived of their livelihood.

In comparison to other Tsunami-hit countries, Sri Lanka was able to restore normalcy in a relatively quicker period of time. Rebuilding activities were carried out by the government in collaboration with NGOs and foreign governments. Though attempts to revive physical and economic background of the affected were quite successful, the healing of their shattered hopes and spirituality remained a gigantic task.

In the aftermath of the tragedy, the government using the lessons and experiences learnt from the tragedy, took action to introduce measures to mitigate the risk of possible future disasters. One of the measures adopted by the government was the passing of the “Disaster Management” Act No 13 of 2005 which incorporated legislative provisions required for minimizing losses and damages to humans as well as nature in a disaster situation.

In 2006, a separate ministry was established to deal with all matters pertaining to disasters which was known as the Minister of Disaster Management and Human Rights. At present, a huge responsibility has been entrusted to this ministry, which has come out with an extensive disaster mitigation plan. The mandate of the ministry includes disaster mitigation, disaster mitigation preparedness, raising awareness of the people through training and practical workshops, designing early warning mechanisms, emergency operations and payment of compensation and assisting recovery efforts.

Further, in a symbolic gesture of creating awareness among people as regards the disaster mitigation, December 26 of each year was named as “National Safety Day” on a proposal made by the then Minister of Disaster Management, Hon. Mahinda Samarasinghe with the approval of the Cabinet.

A decision has already been taken by the government to hold this year’s National Safety Day in Jaffna.

The responsibility thrust on us on this day is to work towards this year’s theme which is, “Mitigate Disasters for sustainable Development’