Daily News, the

'For severe droughts, we would need a mitigation plan. This presupposes the existence of a national drought risk map, forecasting and early warning systems and monitoring systems. It would be the data from these that would enable an effective response plan'...

'Though we cannot prevent natural disasters, we can minimize the damages through public awareness on disaster. Many died in the tsunami due to ignorance on natural disasters,' Prime Minister, DM Jayaratne, said...

The translated Sinhala and Tamil versions the Sphere Handbook 2011 edition, considering emerging issues like climate change, disaster risk reduction, was launched at Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute for International Relations and Strategic Studies...

'It is fundamental, that our local leaders are conscious about the potential risk their citizens face and we need to invest more on disaster risk reduction measures at local levels with assistance of all stakeholders' said Minister Mahinda Amaraweera at the national launch of the 'Making Cities Resilient' world campaign yesterday...

'I will give priority to taking preventive measures. Cabinet approval has already been granted for a project to be implemented next year at a cost of US$ 50 million to minimize landslides.' Disaster Management Minister Mahinda Amaraweera told the Daily News in an interview...

'Sri Lanka is in a position to revitalize its proven historical experience on preparedness such as the ancient irrigation culture and other cultural practices to minimize disaster impact including climate change' said UN resident representative, Neil Buhne in a report by the Daily News...

'The Integrated Strategic Environmental Assessment (ISEA) will create a framework to protect sensitive areas and introduce disaster risk reduction and environment conservation measures from the start of new projects...' said Dr Mallawatantri, UNDP Assistant Representative, in an interview with the Daily News...

Rasika Somarathna reports on the recent comments made by emergency relief official, Dr Ananda Mallawatantri, on the preliminary findings of a study of the Sri Lankan context within global climate change predictions...