News
Heavy human toll from 4,300-plus incidents of crashing walls of earth
View(s):By Nidarshani Wickramasinghe
During the past six years in Sri Lanka, the number of soil embankment failures has increased compared with landslides and slope failures, officials said.
As a result, Sri Lankans are being asked to be extra vigilant in building houses and buildings near earth embankments.
According to data received from the Landslide Research and Risk Management Division of the National Building Research Organisation (NBRO) for 2019–2024, there have been 936 landslides and slope failures and 4,320 earth embankment failures reported. These have resulted in 52 deaths.
Landslide at Reverstone, Laggala. Pic by Mahesh Keerthirathna
Dr Wasantha Senadheera, senior scientist at the NBRO, said, “Most people prefer building homes on low-level grounds near earth embankments. A slope as high as 10 feet is capable of triggering a catastrophic event. Additionally, when water passes through springs in the neighbourhood, the ground starts cracking. When a slope is graded to a level of over one and a half metres high, it will definitely collapse.”
He said there should be a distance of at least 10 feet between a house and a slope. “Even when a wheelbarrow load of earth falls off, the land is in great peril. In fact, any ground near a slope is hazardous.”
Six districts with high landslide risk have been identified — Nuwara Eliya, Badulla, Kandy, Matale, Kegalle and Ratnapura. In addition, Monaragala, Kurunegala, Gampaha, Colombo, Kalutara, Galle, Matara and Hambantota have been classified as moderately high-risk districts, making a total of 14 districts under surveillance for landslide risk.
So far, about 14,000 families in areas identified as being under landslide threat have been registered, and about 5,000 families have been resettled with the assistance of the government.
Resettlement is prioritised into three levels. Priority (1) 2,780 rural homes and 258 estate homes, priority (2) 7,876 rural homes and 1,199 estate homes, and priority (3) 1,610 rural homes and 462 estate homes.
Dr Senadheera also revealed that Sri Lanka is yet to have a direct ground-level disaster early warning system.
However, a World Bank–funded project is being proposed through the Disaster Management Centre to introduce such technology.
“So far, 330 automatic rainfall gauges have been installed in 14 target districts. The initial warning is issued when rainfall hits 75 millimetres. Evacuation warnings are issued when it reaches 150 mm. There is currently no system to warn people directly. Warnings are issued by the DMC via official channels and social media, and regular public awareness campaigns are being done on disaster prevention.’’
Professor S. Wijeratne of the Department of Geography, University of Ruhuna, said that Sri Lanka lagged behind other Asian countries in being ready for disasters until recent years.
He said floods have been the most frequent natural hazard in the country in the past, while landslides, cyclones, droughts, earthquakes, and tsunamis were relatively rare.
“However, in recent years, Sri Lanka has become one of the most disaster-prone nations in Asia, suffering nearly all types of natural hazards in the world. In contrast to flood-stricken India or earthquake-prone Indonesia, Sri Lanka today is saddled with a combination of these disasters.”
He said the danger of earthquakes and tsunamis is also rising due to the Indo-Australian tectonic plate shifting and breaking up into smaller plates such as the Burmese and Indian microplates, which makes seismic activity near Sri Lanka increasingly likely. Sri Lanka is therefore gradually becoming one of the most disaster-vulnerable countries in Asia, the quintessential global disaster hotspot.
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