National Safety Day (NSD) is an annual event since 2006. This year National Safety Day will be commemorated in Kurunegala in conjunction with District Secretariat and North Western Provincial Council (NWPC). All arrangements are underway for the fourth commemoration. The first Safety Day was held in Galle, following a cabinet decision in 2006 to declare 26th December as the National Safety Day. The second and the third programmes were organized by Disaster Management Centre in Ratnapura and Kandy districts respectively.
What is the Significant of National Safety Day? The catastrophic tsunami is one of the most deadly natural disasters that we experienced in the recent history of Sri Lanka, where more than 35000 people were killed within a matter of a few minutes. The damage caused to movable and immovable property as well as infrastructure, is beyond one’s imagination. It taught us a good lesson, though costly. With the devastation caused by tsunami people of all walks of life realized the significance of preparedness and culture of safety as we did not have any such experience in the living past. In the absence of previous experience of that nature, people did not know what to do and what not to do. This is more evident from the behavior of people who went to the shore as sea level receded suddenly with the inward bound current, without any concern for their lives or kith and kin. Had there been at least little consciousness regarding their own safety, most of the lives that lost would have been saved. What does this tell us? It tells us nothing but the importance of safety. The learning point that tsunami taught is ‘safety first’. Having realized the significance of safety and preparedness, Disaster Management Centre firmly committed to create a culture of safety in the society for their own interest. The National Safety Day is used as one of the strategies to inculcate this new concept among all irrespective of their colour, creed or faith that they belong.
With that thinking we have added several features to the National Safety Day Commemoration primarily with two objectives; to sensitize the social communities and the institutions on their potential role in reducing the disaster risk and to raise awareness. With the assistance and cooperation of provincial education department, DMC has organized among school children of different age categories essay and art competitions. The ultimate objective of these competitions is to enhance the knowledge among students on Disaster Management who would presumably be able to carry that message forward as future responsible citizens of this country.
This year commemorative programme will be held in the Provincial Council Auditorium . Honourable he Prime Minister Mr. Ratnasiri Wickramanayakie has been invited as Chief Guest by Hon Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe, Minister of Disaster Management & Human Rights. There are several other cabinet ministers, ministers of central government & provincial council, together with top level government officials and other dignitaries have been invited for this national event
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