{"id":53434,"date":"2017-06-04T03:12:50","date_gmt":"2017-06-04T07:12:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=53434"},"modified":"2017-06-04T03:12:50","modified_gmt":"2017-06-04T07:12:50","slug":"disaster-management-minister-anura-priyadarshana-yapa-blames-people-for-not-leaving-their-homes-when-warned-there-was-going-to-be-much-rain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=53434","title":{"rendered":"Disaster Management Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa Blames People for Not Leaving Their Homes When Warned There was Going to be much Rain"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nBy
\nGagani Weerakoon<\/strong><\/p>\n

Disaster Management Minister, Anura Priyadharshana Yapa, who was criticized and trolled on social media for his continued failure to make an appearance during the severe stage of natural disaster came for the weekly Cabinet media briefing and had to face a host of questions from journalists.<\/p>\n

Denying allegations that his Ministry was ill equipped to handle calamities, despite public outcry that the ministry was unprepared to face such a disaster, the minister instead took a dig at the general public.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n


\n“No matter how much we tell them it is going to rain, leave their homes, they will not leave their homes. We saw this in Kolonnawa also. When we asked them to leave their homes, they didn’t leave. They wait till the water comes up to their roofs and then cry for a boat to save them,'” he said.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Sports Minister and newly appointed co-Cabinet Spokesman Dayasiri Jayasekera also chimed in, holding the public responsible for their own safety.<\/p>\n


\n“Our people never check the weather forecast. Who listens to the weather forecast? People listen to the news headlines and then change the channel,” he said.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

However, Yapa admitted that the Meteorology Department does have its share of shortcomings.<\/p>\n

“We have problems. We have technological problems. In the middle of all of this, this Department has managed to give accurate weather information. No one can deny that. If people are saying we have provided incorrect information then the best thing to do is to close the Disaster Management Centre and let people just check an app on their phones for weather related information,” he said.<\/p>\n

Yet, is it only the failure of the Government and State agencies that have resulted in hindering disaster management and put the public in trouble.<\/p>\n

Like Yapa said, no matter how much the authorities warn, people are reluctant to leave their homes until the eleventh hour. This, in turn is due to social and economic reasons and the attitude of the people of Sri Lanka and in South Asia as a whole.<\/p>\n

For instance, building a house, buying a vehicle or even buying a television is a lifetime experience for us in Sri Lanka unlike those in Europe or USA or any other developed country. There, people are used to throw away vehicles or any other asset once they reach the limits of consumption period. On the other hand, the general assumption of people, as Minister Jayasekara precisely put it, is that the least reliable news in a daily news bulletin is the weather report. However, one must not forget that with minimal technology, the Met Department has predicted certain weather conditions accurately.<\/p>\n

This, however, was largely due to them being connected with other international agencies, in the region and the world, which are up to date with the latest technology and knowledge.<\/p>\n

While environmental conditions, unplanned towns and cities, modern constructions and infrastructure development together with increased urbanization may have contributed its due share in creating natural disasters, one must also not forget that early warning system is quite new for Sri Lankans to get absorbed in, as we did not possess such mechanism until 2004 December Tsunami.<\/p>\n

While the State institution system and bureaucracy amongst other professions in the country were established during imperial era and later subjected to development and evolvement, Disaster Management Centre is the only institution that was established and developed by us in the post-independent era.<\/p>\n

Though, it is accepted that there may be shortcomings in their technology, it is also essential to highlight that they have been able to maintain and share data and statistics’ up-to-date accurately.<\/p>\n

What we as a country must do, is to develop a proper institutional system that could come into action at an emergency. While it is commendable that the likes of Palitha Thewarapperuma going knee-deep in flood waters assisting the people in distress, disaster management or providing relief during such situation by connecting with international agencies, embassies and, coordinating State institutions goes farther than that.<\/p>\n

Courtesy;Ceylon Today<\/em><\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Gagani Weerakoon Disaster Management Minister, Anura Priyadharshana Yapa, who was criticized and trolled on social media for his continued failure to make an appearance during the severe stage of natural disaster came for the weekly Cabinet media briefing and had to face a host of questions from journalists. Denying allegations that his Ministry was …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Disaster Management Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa Blames People for Not Leaving Their Homes When Warned There was Going to be much Rain’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53434"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=53434"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53434\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53435,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53434\/revisions\/53435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=53434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=53434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=53434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}