Drought; an upshot of perennial indifference

While revealing that 50,000 acres of paddy lands have been destroyed by the prevailing drought leaving thousands of farmer families destitute, Agriculture Minister Mahinda Amaraweera said on Sunday that the extension of paddy fields affected might rise up to 100,000 acres in a few weeks. 

The current drought as usual has taken a heavy toll not only on agriculture but also on the wildlife resulting in animals dangerously set to roam in villages adjacent to the forests and hunters setting fire to kill the fleeing animals. People in many rural areas in the country have been compelled to trek miles to fetch drinking water while authorities are making sandbag hurdles downstream of rivers to prevent seawater from flowing upstream causing saline intrusion in river water used by millions of people as drinking water. 
The extreme heat generated by the drought has also increased the electricity usage by the people who have already been severely hit by the recent three hikes in electricity tariff. And it in turn forced or provided the opportunity to the authorities to make emergency power purchases, a method widely suspected as unscrupulous. 
While this has intensified the pressure on the country’s foreign reserves, the drought has also taken its toll on export crops such as tea which earns much-needed foreign exchange for the country. 

The situation is going to worsen the already deteriorated food security situation in the country with the impact of the drought on agricultural products. However, Minister Amaraweera expressed confidence on Sunday that there won’t be any need to import rice as there are sufficient stocks of paddy from the highly successful last Maha season, despite reports of attempts by the rice mafia to raise the prices. 
The drought and its devastating effects are not new phenomena in Sri Lanka. Drought is one of the most frequent and hazardous natural disasters that affects tens of thousands of families annually in the country, particularly those in the lower strata of the community.  
The frequency of occurrence of droughts and the fact that it is perceived as a natural phenomenon, there is a perception prevalent in Sri Lankan society that it is beyond the control of human beings. And the traditional popular belief that “natural” disasters stem from divine rage in a way absolves the authorities from taking remedial actions. 

On the other hand, the authorities too seem to believe that there is no onus on them to minimize the effects of disasters such as drought, by way of planning disaster preparedness, they rather believe in post-disaster relief measures which sometimes become a windfall to them. Hence, always the effect is being addressed or tried to be addressed and not the cause of the problem. 
Most of the ‘natural disasters’ in today’s context are not purely natural as human activities largely contribute to exacerbating them, if not causing them. 
While worldwide climate change has heavily impacted on causing and exacerbating so-called natural disasters in Sri Lanka, locally, human activities such as deforestation have a considerable bearing on them. 
Sri Lanka was ranked the fourth most climate change-affected country in 2016 according to the Global Climate Risk. As far as the drought is concerned there never seemed to be any preparedness, despite many reports on the disaster having underscored the need to have one. 
Similarly, although it is a well-known fact that deforestation contributes largely towards drought, no government from the colonial period including the current one took steps to address the issue. The indifference towards this grave situation on the part of the leaders of the governments is such that as recently as the 12 years between 2010 and 2022 Sri Lanka has lost 8400 hectares of natural forest, according to Global Forest Watch. 

Still, there is no sign of the authorities considering to have plans of preparedness, at least now. In fact, it is the politicians and the top officials in the country who are at the forefront of destroying the forests, instead. The onus is now on the media and the conservationists to redouble their efforts to impart awareness among the masses in order to push the authorities – both politicians and the officialdom – to take long-term as well as short-term measures to address the issue.