Navigating nature

Thursday, 29 December 2016 08:15 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

As rains buffet Colombo, the Minister for Disaster Management Anura Priyadarshana Yapa has warned other parts of the country to brace for its worst drought in four decades. In a cruel twist of fate, the year which began with devastating floods has ended with the island’s climate touching the other end of the natural disaster spectrum.

Sri Lanka’s high level of “near-poor”, that is people who are just above the poverty line but can very easily fall below it, has made economic recovery from these disasters even more challenging, as thousands of those affected are people who have become highly-indebted from previous natural disasters. They now face an uncertain future as they lack the capacity to recover independently, showing the country’s all-too-vulnerable lower middle class.

To add to the country’s woes is its agriculture sector; worn down by climate change, dwindling resources and inconsistent policies, the sector just simply cannot catch a break.

Preparing for such disasters is therefore no easy task, and can be especially daunting for a small nation such as Sri Lanka. However, if holistic, long-term policies are not enacted soon things have the potential to get a whole lot worse.

The Climate Change Secretariat was established in 2007 to provide policy options for adaptation and response strategies for climate change on key socioeconomic sectors, but nothing concrete had taken place to date. Relief handouts are the main Government drought management approach. Although important in reducing hunger and hardship among the populations affected, provision of relief alone is clearly inadequate and may even be an inefficient response for achieving longer-term drought mitigation.

Given the strong linkage between drought and poverty, it is critically important to include drought mitigation as an integral part of overall rural development strategy. Policies that, in general, increase income growth and encourage income diversification also serve to protect farmers from the adverse consequences of risk, including that of drought.

As far as actually dealing with disasters after the fact, goodwill from average citizens, corporate, NGOs and other civil society and grassroots organisations will only go so far in meeting this demand. Additionally, without a central coordinating authority to oversee appropriate channelling of funds to the sectors that need them the most, non-State actors are limited in the overarching impact they can have on helping the island rise above disaster. This is where the State can and must step in for the benefit of all.

Reeling from its own lack of cash, the Government has a dual duty to encourage donations both locally and from the international community, and then channel them to the right quarters in the fastest time possible. But more importantly it will have to sort out its own house and finances to put them to use in the recovery effort without endangering the overall growth of the national economy. With fresh loans taken and new taxes imposed, the average Sri Lankan is left in a precarious position and the Government must find the most equitable way forward.

On the whole 2016 has seen little to no respite for Sri Lanka, and the Government’s capacity to continue to handle such disasters will be crucial in shaping how 2017 and every year after it goes.