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Country
Situation:
Sri Lanka island country in South Asia,
located about 31 kilometers (19.3 mi) off the southern coast of India.
There are about 20 million inhabitants, who have experienced impacts of both
natural and man-made disasters. The 2004 Tsunami which affected 6 countries
in South East Asia, killing more than 200,000 people overall, also affected Sri Lanka. 13
of 25 districts in the country and two-thirds of the coastline were affected,
resulting in the death of 35,322 people and a million people displaced from
their homes. Some of the Eastern districts are still recovering from this
event today. Other natural disasters such as floods, landslides, and drought
occur quite regularly as well. The most recent floods in May 2010 were a
result of the heavy pre-monsoon rains and thunderstorms resulting in flash floods
causing overflowing of rivers and streams. At its peak, 13 out of 25
districts were affected resulting in 606,702 people being displaced from
their homes. According to the UNDP 2004 report on Reducing Disaster Risk, Sri Lanka
experienced an average of 1.29 flood events per year between 1980 and 2000.
In terms of physical exposure of its population to floods, Sri Lanka
ranks as 11th in the world in terms of annual average exposure in proportion
to population.
Man-made disasters,
including conflict, fire and other hazards, have also occurred in Sri Lanka.
The 30-year armed conflict between the LTTE and the Government of Sri Lanka
finally ended in May 2009. The final days of the conflict resulted in about
300,000 people being displaced from the Vanni. The
country is still in the process of recovering from the effects of the long
war. Under the overall leadership of the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL), the country has been able to meet the different
challenge faced and produced good results in terms of lives saved, as well as
gaining valuable experiences and lessons in handling disaster situations.
Strategies:
 Strengthen and communicate information for
emergency preparedness, response and dissemination
Contribute to networks for coordinated
preparedness and crisis management
Continue to address health and rehabilitation
in post-tsunami and post conflict areas
Institutionalize the Emergency Preparedness
and Response Programme within the health sector
Activities:
In addition to
supporting the activities of the Disaster Preparedness and Response
Department (DPRD) of the Ministry of Health, WHO is currently also supporting
the Health Emergency Disaster Management Training centre. (HEDMaTC).
The Health
Emergency Disaster Management Training centre (HEDMaTC)
was established in the Faculty of Medicine, University of Peradeniya, in March 2006.
The objectives of the HEDMaTC are:
Plan and carry out
in-course training, seminars and workshops to increase the knowledge on
Health Emergencies and Disaster Management in relevant professionals and
thereby to develop a core group of persons with expertise knowledge in these
areas.
Establish and conduct post-graduate courses in
Health Emergency Disaster management
Promote research on Health Emergency and
Disaster management
To establish regional and global links and
networks in the field
The training programme
of HEDMaTC consists of three units;
1. Public
Health Emergency and Disaster Management Training for administrators and
health Professionals
2. Pre-hospital
Emergency care training for doctors, nurses and ambulance drivers
3. Injury
research Unit
To this date, this program has been able to train medical
doctors, nurses and ambulance drivers on pre-hospital emergency care. In
addition, over 70 persons including administrators, local bodies and armed
forces have been trained on Public health Emergency and Disaster Management
who had played crucial roles in the response to the humanitarian crisis in
the North at the end of the armed conflict in May 2009.
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