Attachments
SUMMARY
Sri Lanka’s high temperatures throughout the year, unique and complex hydrological regime, and exposure to extreme climate events make it highly vulnerable to climate change. Increased extreme events and natural hazards due to climate change will considerably threaten Sri Lanka’s economy and human health. In recent years, Sri Lanka has experienced a series of major crises, including the 2019 Easter Attacks and the global COVID-19 pandemic1 , followed by the 2022 economic crisis. These crises have severely affected marginalized communities’ capacity to withstand the impacts of even minor external shocks.
According to local authorities data, Sri Lanka’s eastern provinces are highly susceptible to floods, drought, and human-animal conflict hazards. They experience high vulnerability due to the share of low-income families, dependency on agriculture and fisheries, and few protection measures in place. Within this context, IMPACT Initiatives, in partnership with Acted, conducted an Area based Risk Assessment (ABRA) in Addalachchenai Divisional Secretary’s Divisions (DSD) in Ampara district, Eastern Province, funded by the US Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA).
The study is anchored on the Sri Lanka Disaster Management Plan 2018-2030 and the National Action Plan for Climate Change Adaptation 2016-2025. The objective is to analyse the main hazards threatening communities within the target DSD, identifying the Grama Nilahadari Divisions (GNDs) most at risk for multiple hazards. The findings intend to assist Acted, the national Government, local authorities, humanitarian partners, and affected communities to predict better, prepare for, and respond to existing and future events through resilience and adaptation initiatives targeting the most exposed and vulnerable territories and communities.
Through local consultations, IMPACT Initiatives identified the eight most recurrent hazards in the eastern and northern provinces of Sri Lanka: drought, flood, human/animal conflict, cyclones, storms, water supply failure, explosives remnants of war (ERW), and land degradation. Local authorities and communities reported during the preliminary consultations in Addalachchenai that floods, droughts, and human-elephant conflict (HEC) are the most prominent. Therefore they were selected to calculate the risk through an adapted World Risk Index Methodology, by which the risk is a multiplication of hazard, exposure, and vulnerability (including susceptibility and lack of coping capacity) of all GNDs in Addalachchenai.
Through the study, IMPACT identified three GNDs, namely Addalaichenai - 09, Oluvil - 01, and Palamunai - 05 as the most at risk for multiple hazards. Oluvil - 01 and Palamunai - 05 have the largest drought prone areas in the DSD with 81% and 95% of crop land affected, respectively.
Addalaichenai - 09 is the most at risk from floods, with 33% of all cropland affected and 49% of low income families. The DSD had 650 families displaced due to floods, most of them in four GNDs (Palamunai - 06 and Addalaichenai - 10, 15, and 16). Four GNDs had over 20% of affected cropland.
In Oluvil - 03 and Deegawapiya - 01, the population has the highest level of vulnerability regarding social dependency, with a high share of female-headed households as well as many children and older people. Social dependency is when an individual or group relies on another individual or group for resources, support, or guidance.
According to local authorities, 10 out of the 32 GNDs have registered elephant attacks. The DSD had 205 ha of forest loss between 1990 and 2022, accounting for 113% of the current forest area. In Addalaichenai, 65% of families have daily incomes between 2000 and 3000 LKR and 1,2% of individuals are unemployed. The unemployment and low-income rates are social insecurity indicators, that present the financial capacity to prepare and recover from hazards.
Overall, the study’s findings underscore the importance of a local approach to understanding risk and informing disaster risk reduction strategies. The specific risk profile of each GND must guide how to prioritise and customise preparedness interventions for drought management, flood control, and HEC. Stakeholders can use this assessment as a valuable tool to design targeted interventions to enhance the resilience of communities and territories in Addalachchenai against single and multi-hazard scenarios.