Introduction

On 26 December 2004 Sri Lanka was hit by the tsunami caused by a massive off shore earthquake some 1500 km away near northern Sumatra. The earthquake, measuring 9.0 on the Richter scale, was one of the largest ever recorded in the sea, and was produced by movements in tectonic plates at the interface between the India and Burma plates.¹ Over 1000 km of the earth’s crust snapped, moving the Burma plate approximately 13 metres over the under-thrusting Indian plate. The thrusting rapidly raised the sea floor, and the 1500 km of open and deep ocean in the bay of Bengal enabled the ocean waves to build up momentum, forming a massive wall of high water on the coastlines as the sea bottom shallowed.

The earthquake occurred on 26^th December at 6.58 am Sri Lanka time. The first large wave hit the east coast at 8.35 am. Soon after waves several meters high battered many other parts of the coast. Within a very short time over 30,000 people were dead, and several hundred thousand had been displaced. In addition massive damage had been inflicted on thousands of houses and other buildings, railways, bridges, communication networks and other infrastructure and capital assets.

Sri Lanka was completely unprepared for the tsunami. It experiences periodic droughts, floods, landslides and the occasional cyclone. But the nation had never experienced a tsunami, or indeed any other type of natural disaster of this scale and magnitude in recorded history. Even the tsunami generated by the Krakatoa eruption of 1883 had lost much of its power by the time it reached Sri Lanka, and it only had a barely discernible impact on the east coast with no recorded casualties. While minor earth tremors are not uncommon, no serious earthquake has occurred for three centuries.² Sri Lanka had no effective domestic hazard warning system, and had not felt the need to be part of international early warning systems, such as the Tsunami Warning System (TWS) in the Pacific (with 26 member countries).

The death and devastation that accompanied the tsunami were a huge shock to the country. In the immediate aftermath of the tsunami, Sri Lankans responded not only with shock, grief and horror but also with a massive outpouring of courage and humanity that transcend barriers of race and creed. In the days that followed, with support also arriving from international organisations, they were able to successfully ensure that survivors were fed, clothed and sheltered, the injured provided with medical attention, and thousands of bodies were cremated or buried. Despite the understandable confusion and even chaos that accompanied this effort at times, there can be little doubt that Sri Lanka can be proud of how it responded to the immediate challenges of the tsunami impact.

The widespread devastation caused by the tsunami in Sri Lanka as well as other parts of Asia caught the world’s attention and generated a wave of sympathy and support. It was perhaps fortuitous that many of the coastal areas were well known tourist destinations. Global media attention was perhaps intensified by the fact that many western tourists were caught up in the tragedy, and the international media coverage was unprecedented for a natural disaster that primarily affected a group of developing countries. The level of governmental and non-governmental assistance – both immediate and promises for the future – was unprecedented. For Sri Lanka, as for other affected countries that have been ready to accept external assistance, the promised external assistance has appeared to be more than adequate to cover the full costs of both immediate relief and reconstruction, and produced, for a while, an almost euphoric national mood. However, as the months go by, it is becoming clear that moving from the immediate relief effort to addressing the massive reconstruction tasks poses a different and, in many ways more complex, set of challenges.

The trauma, grief and suffering associated with deaths of family members, relatives and friends, destruction of houses, displacement, loss of livelihoods, savings and valued belongings are unquantifiable. The task of rebuilding shattered lives is a difficult and arduous task that requires both material and non-material assistance requiring a multifaceted and multi-pronged strategy. The focus here, however, is primarily on the economic issues related to post-tsunami reconstruction and recovery, reflecting constraints imposed by time, resources and our disciplinary expertise. This report is based on a series of studies conducted by the Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka, in collaboration with the Asian Economics Centre at the University of Melbourne, with generous financial assistance from the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI). We hope that it will contribute to the discussions and debates on appropriate policies for the medium term reconstruction effort by providing an analysis of some of the priority issues from a Sri Lankan perspective.³

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Comment(s)

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1. Dushi Weerakoon, one of the co-authors
   (posted 31 March 2006 / 11:43:50 AM)
   
   In response to the comment below:
   
   Besides funeral expenses, etc. a cash grant of $50 per month and $3.75 cash and food ration were given to all affected households (for approximately 4 months). For residents outside the buffer zone, if a house is more than 40% damaged, a grant of $2,500 is given in 4 instalments, based on progress. If a house is less than 40% damaged, then a grant of $1,000 is provided, disbursed in 2 stages. For residents within the buffer zone, the government planned to assist not only landowners, but all residents (including encroachers) with some form of housing. This was estimated to require around 50,000 permanent houses. Further quite considerable details on government handouts are contained in the report itself.
   
2. ken bacon
   (posted 18 December 2005 / 06:57:36 PM)
   
   This chapter notes that the government immediately paid money for funeral expenses, livelihood and cooking utensils. What additional government compensation has been provided? I am particularly interested in how the relatively generous post earthquake compensation program in Pakistan compares to government compensation for loss following the tsunami.