Sri Lanka: children as early detectors, preventers of disaster

Colombo - Residents of Ovilkanda, a remote village in Matale District, central Sri Lanka, often contend with a natural hazard, lightning, that strikes with great frequency and sometimes with deadly effect.

So when the local school, the Ovilkanda Maha Vidyalaya, hosted a disaster mitigation programme conducted jointly by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the Disaster Management Centre, the government agency handling disaster mitigation, the students were unanimous in their choice of which disaster prevention mechanism was most needed.

"They wanted a lightning conductor fixed to the school building," Indika Ranaweera, the DMC's disaster management coordinator for Matale District, told IRIN. "Lightning was the most persistent natural danger for the kids. In the last two years lightning had struck twice in the school compound killing one person."

Disaster mitigation specialists working with the UNDP/DMC project, as well as with them on other similar projects throughout the country, told IRIN that Sri Lankan children were concerned that not as much attention was being paid to potential dangers always around them as to periodic large-scale disasters.

"Adults see the traditional dangers, like floods, cyclones, landslides or even tsunamis," UNDP field coordinator for the programme Zihan Zarouk said, "but children can look outside the box, and identify things that adults probably see but tend to ignore." The one-year UNDP/DMC programme will cover 48 schools in 15 districts by the time it concludes this November.

Arjuna Eramudugolla, a project manager in the southern Matara District for the Child-Led Disaster Risk Reduction Programme - conducted in schools by Save the Children Sri Lanka - also found children identifying dangers often overlooked by adults.

"What we have seen is that they are keenly aware of dangers that are present on a daily basis, like exposed wires, dangerous trees near school buildings or unsafe buildings and even road safety," he told IRIN.

Rabid dogs
In Weligama Division in Matara District about 150km south of Colombo, children identified rabid dogs as the biggest threat to their community.

Eramudugolla told IRIN that after discussions with village level community groups, a rabies prevention programme was initiated in three villages in Weligama Division.

"We were able to discuss with the students and adults and organise sterilisation and vaccination programmes," the Save the Children official said.

His counterpart in the eastern Batticaloa District, Mayroon Thevasingamany, a disaster risk reduction specialist with Save the Children Sri Lanka, had a similar experience with children at a centre for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Batticaloa town, 300km east of Colombo.

"At the IDP centre, the children identified malaria and dengue as dangers. They felt that pools of water stagnating everywhere in the camp was the cause," he told IRIN.

The children also took the lead in organising the prevention programme as was the case with the anti-rabies programme.

"They organised a Shremadana (volunteer work campaign) among the IDPs to clean the site and also staged street dramas to educate others on the dangers posed by the mosquito breeding grounds," Thevasingamany told IRIN.

Success
Officials involved in both programmes said such mitigation methods with children taking the lead were showing high levels of success.

"They learn fast, but will also do their own research," the UNDP field coordinator working with the DMC Zihan Zarouk, told IRIN. "Kids also have the time, energy and enthusiasm to get involved [in prevention programmes] far more than adults who have other obligations."

In one other school, Hadugamuva Maha Vidyalaya, also in Matale District, the UNDP/DMC joint programme found that children wanted to prevent wild elephants encroaching on their villages but were not keen on setting up electric fences.

"They went for the newer idea, that of setting up 'live' fences," Zarouk said. "Instead of live electricity, the fences were made of plants with thick thorns that the animals find very hard to creep through."

Saving money, victims
The Save the Children Sri Lanka disaster risk education programme in Sri Lanka has already covered 150 schools throughout the country and involved 20,000 students. The agency said awareness programmes not only prevented children falling victim to disasters but also saved colossal amounts of money spent on relief and recovery.

In a recent report entitled In the Face of Disaster, Children and Climate Change, released on 30 June, the agency estimated that annually 175 million children fall victim to natural disasters.

The report said that every US$1 spent on preparing for a disaster can prevent US$7 in losses.

"This demonstrates the case for disaster risk reduction to be mainstreamed into development planning and programming," the report stated.

ap/bj/cb