Sri Lanka Strengthens Community-Based Disaster Management (SBDM)

The Sri Lanka Urban Multi-Hazard Disaster Mitigation Project (SLUMDMP) aims to reduce the vulnerability of Sri Lankan cities through a demonstration project in Ratnapura and replication projects in Kandy, Nawalapitiya, Colombo and cities along the Kelani River. The SLUMDMP partners - the Centre for Housing Planning and Building (CHPB), the National Building Research Organization (NBRO) and the Urban Development Authority (UDA) - focus on developing tools and skills to incorporate risk management into urban development planning in collaboration with municipal officials.

Following a risk assessment and action planning process in Nawalapitiya, the city has decided to implement CBDM initiatives as outlined in their disaster management action plan. The Chairman of Nawalapitiya Urban Council has facilitated the establishment of community-based organizations in disaster-prone areas within the city to implement the mitigation actions. At the same time, the success of SLUMDMP has led to the project's partnership with the Duryog Nivaran network to promote and build capacity for CBDM throughout Sri Lanka.

The first CBDM course in Sri Lanka was hosted by CHPB in September 2001 with support from the Intermediate Technology Development Group (ITDG) South Asia and Duryog Nivaran, in collaboration with NBRO and the National Disaster Management Center (NDMC). Twenty-one participants from non-governmental organizations and five participants from government institutions and Nawalapitiya Urban Council attended the course to learn and share their experiences on CBDM in Sri Lanka. Besides Mr N M S I Arambepola and Mr Zubair Morshed from ADPC, trainers from CHPB, ITDG and NBRO who participated in ADPC's fourth regional CBDM course, also provided resource inputs to the course.

On the evening of 16 July 2001, an earthquake of magnitude 5.1 Richter Scale shook western and central Nepal. Gorakha District of Prithvinagar Municipality, where the epicenter was located in western Nepal, reported 15 residents injured and considerable damage to houses and critical facilities.

Committee members of Ward No. 8 approached the National Society for Earthquake Technology (NSET) requesting their assistance to provide technical support to reconstruct the Gorkhkali Primary School which was partially destroyed, and to build a "Reconstruction Model Village" for replication in other villages of Gorakha. It is exciting to see that the communities have themselves initiated this process. Two Advisory Committees have already been formed, one for school reconstruction and the other for the model village construction. Similar to the Kathmandu Valley Earthquake Risk Mitigation Program's (KVERMP) School Earthquake Safety Program, mason training, public awareness and community participation will be incorporated in this initiative.

AUDMP Encourages Research on Urban Disaster Mitigation

Postgraduate degree students of the Urban Environmental Engineering and Management (UEEM) Program offered by the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) have shown interest in undertaking course assignments related to urban disaster mitigation. Students have approached AUDMP for examples of hazard maps, risk assessment techniques and samples of curriculum on disaster mitigation. Some of these students were participants on an Advanced Urban Planning and Management (AUPM) course organized by the Urban Research Institute in Vientiane, Lao PDR during March and July 2000. The AUDMP team had presented a short version of the Urban Disaster Mitigation Course to the participants of the AUPM. Later, some of these participants received scholarships to enroll in the UEEM program at AIT.