The Parliamentary Select Committee is due to hand over its report in a few days. Probably the report of the Presidential Commission is also coming out in this period. Let us hope that they will highlight this issue and that our sleeping government will wake up.

The system will, at least in the early stages, rely on tide gauges that transmit information of rising water levels in real time. It is unlikely that this will reduce the 75% error rate that has been characteristic of such systems in the Pacific Ocean. But it is definitely better than what we now have, where every underwater earthquake above 7.0 or thereabouts leads to a tsunami warning somewhere.

As I said to the BBC Sinhala service when they interviewed me about this yesterday, I wish this initiative all strength. The weaknesses we have is whether the 24 hour center that will receive the information will be actually operational; whether they can efficiently get the warnings out to the affected areas; and whether the people in those areas will have the training and the knowledge to respond effectively. This is the problem that our proposed work with Sarvodaya seeks to address.

Sarvodaya, LIRNEasia and Vanguard Foundation are hoping to implement some of the ideas in the concept paper as part of Sarvodaya’s initiative to make its 226 tsunami-affected villages located in all the affected districts, disaster resilient. Complementary to Sarvodaya’s comprehensive village reawakening activities, LIRNEasia and partners will spearhead training and related activities to enable the village communities to better respond to disasters. Subject to funding, it is hoped to test various information and communication technology solutions of connecting the tsunami-affected villages to each other and to sources of reliable and timely hazard information, including, but not limited to, government sources.

this is an excellent initiative and the most thoughtful material I have been able to find so far on the web.

Alexandra