In the recent past, the Southwest monsoon and cyclonic climate conditions triggered heavy rainfall across south-western and north-eastern parts of Sri Lanka. Heavy rains and high winds prevailed in most districts, during the monsoon period causing considerable damage to communities and properties. Puttalam district was one of the worst affected districts during the monsoon seasons, with a significant number of damages and displacements.

Under the guidance and advice of the Director General, Major General (Retd.) Sudantha Ranasinghe, the Disaster Management Centre with the assistance of the Asian Disaster Preparedness (ADPC) made necessary arrangements to conduct an After Action Review (AAR) on few of the worst affected districts, during the monsoons in 2021 and this year’s onset of the southwest monsoon. An AAR, is a qualitative review of the actions taken to respond to an emergency/disaster event, which would provide an opportunity for DMC and all related stakeholders to identify and document the challenges and gaps/ shortcomings experienced during the process of managing such disasters.

As the second programme of this project, an AAR in the form of focus group discussions was conducted for Puttalam district, with the participation of representing a diverse group of key stakeholders such as government administration officers of organisations/ institutions at local authority level, public representatives including business community, affected persons, officers of key technical agencies including health, tri-forces and police, local and international non-governmental or humanitarian agencies.