17 September 2007
Minister Samarasinghe calls for a review of "lessons learned" from the Tsunami warning of 12th September 2007
Mahinda Samarasinghe, Minister of Disaster Management and Human Rights, today called for an immediate review of the Tsunami alert process that was put into operation last Wednesday (12 September), with a view to learning from the experience and refining procedures. He stated that the largely successful exercise could prove a platform for making future improvements to the early warning process making it more effective and efficient.
Minister Samarasinghe stated that, consequent to the earthquake in Indonesia, the Tsunami early warning process was activated in Sri Lanka on 12 September. He expressed his appreciation of the efforts of the officials of the Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights, the Department of Meteorology, the Disaster Management Centre, the Geological Survey and Mines Bureau and NARA. He also commended all governmental and non-governmental agencies for their involvement in ensuring that the safety of coastal dwellers was catered to by moving them to secure locations further inland.
He made special mention of the role of the Police and Armed Services and the entire national media network, especially the electronic media including several F.M. radio stations, in implementing the early warning process. He highlighted the input of communications companies Sri Lanka Telecom and Dialog GSM who also contributed immensely to this exercise.
The objective of the review is to stress the necessity of improved communication of the national early warning system to the local level and, to this end the review will be undertaken by studying and learning from this experience.
The Minister called for a sharing of experiences between experts at the national and district level and service providers whose interactions would result in improved coordination and programming during a future emergency.
17 September 2007
