Lessons Learnt from Sri Lanka’s Worst Natural Disaster
The tsunami that struck Sri Lanka 20 years ago on December 26, 2004 was the most destructive natural disaster in living memory. It claimed over 39,000 lives and destroyed thousands of houses…
Disaster Management
Tackling Climate Vulnerabilities in the Farming Sector
Since August this year, ten districts in Sri Lanka have witnessed severe drought conditions due to the lack of seasonal rainfall. The cultivation of around 50,000 farmers has been affected due to…
2022: A Year Like No Other
2022 was one of the most momentous years in Sri Lanka’s recent history. An unprecedented people’s movement drove out an elected president and prime minister and forced the resignation of the entire…
Sri Lanka Goes to the IMF
Sri Lanka has taken the (rather delayed) initiative to seek International Monetary Fund (IMF) aid and assistance to cure the economic crisis. Before I delve into what the IMF conditionalities and its…
Our Planet, Our Health
Today is World Health Day World Health Day, a global health awareness day, was declared to mark the anniversary of the founding of World Health Organisation (WHO) on April 7, 1948. World…
The Toxic Shipwreck: A Silent Killer Murdering Ocean Life
The X-Press Pearl ship catastrophe is the most significant ship accident that has happened in the Indian ocean and is the worst maritime disaster in the history of Sri Lanka. This is…
Counting the Costs of an Environmental Tragedy
Sri Lanka has seen various large scale environmental disasters over its history from British colonial rulers scraping out the the central hills for tea to the fast paced Mahavali River diversion project…
X-Press Pearl Disaster: An Oceanographic Perspective
The container ship, X-Press Pearl, was registered in Singapore and operated by one of the largest feeder ship operators in the world, X-Press Feeders. X-Press Feeders operates a route that includes Port…
The Toxic Ship – What Price for Environmental Devastation?
“” This is a politician’s perception of the vessel-source pollution caused by the X-Press Pearl that caught fire and sank off in the Sri Lankan waters. Not only the politicians but the…
An Avoidable Environmental Catastrophe: Where Did It Go Wrong?
Sri Lanka is currently experiencing the greatest marine disaster in its history caused by the burning and sinking of the MV X-Press Pearl in the shallow waters less than 10 nautical miles…
The X-Press Pearl Fire – A Disaster of Unimaginable Proportions
After 12 days, the ship MV X-Press Pearl finally sank about 9.5 nautical miles from the Colombo harbour. It has not sunk fully because it is touching a coral bed. The ship…
Protecting Prisoners from Coronavirus
There have been no deaths due to Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Sri Lanka. The number of confirmed cases per day went down the last two days (20th and 21st March)[1]. But tragically,…
A Lenten Reflection
“Try again; fail again. Fail better. “- Samuel Beckett Last year at Easter, sudden acts of violence spread immense fear, injury and death, within a matter of moments. A small group of…
A brief guide to the coronavirus pandemic, its implications and what you can do to help
Image courtesy The Economist As unprecedented events unfold due to the pandemic caused by the novel strain of coronavirus (COVID-19), misinformation can be deadly. This is a brief guide to the pandemic,…
Digana: One year on
When violence spread to Digana on the 5th of March 2018, Mr. J.M Niyas suffered heavy losses. He lost his grocery store; the source of income that helped him feed and educate…
