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DonateBy A.R.P.Warnasooriya, Additional Director General, Department of Meteorology, Sri Lanka
| “Southasiadisasters.net empowers Sri Lanka to learn from regional experiences—turning shared challenges into shared solutions. It connects practitioners, policymakers, and communities across South Asia for collective resilience building.” |
Southasiadisasters.net is an important platform that shares knowledge and experiences on disaster risk reduction and resilience in South Asia. The region faces numerous natural hazards, including floods, cyclones, droughts, landslides, and earthquakes. With climate change making these events more frequent and intense, it is vital to have reliable information that helps communities, governments, and organisations prepare and respond better.
This platform plays a key role by collecting and publishing useful articles, case studies, and reports on disaster management. It highlights both challenges and solutions from different parts of South Asia, making the knowledge very practical and relevant. For example, it often showcases local community efforts, innovative practices, and lessons learned from past disasters. This helps others learn and apply similar approaches in their own contexts.
For Sri Lanka, Southasiadisasters.net is especially valuable. The country is highly vulnerable to climate-related hazards, which are being intensified by climate change, such as floods, droughts, high winds, extreme heat, cyclones, and landslides. By accessing the shared experiences of neighbouring countries, Sri Lanka can learn new strategies for community-based disaster preparedness, early warning systems, and climate adaptation. The platform also highlights good practices on coastal management, livelihood protection, and risk-sensitive urban planning, which are highly relevant for Sri Lanka’s development needs. For example, insights into drought management, urban flood resilience, and ecosystem-based adaptation can directly support Sri Lanka’s efforts to build resilience for vulnerable communities and critical sectors such as agriculture, water, and health.
Another strength of Southasiadisasters.net is that it brings together a diverse range of voices—experts, practitioners, policymakers, and community members. By doing so, it promotes the idea that disaster management is not just the responsibility of governments, but a shared task that needs cooperation from everyone.
The platform is also useful for students, young professionals, and civil society groups who want to understand disaster risk issues in the region.
Overall, Southasiadisasters.net is important because it connects people, ideas, and solutions across South Asia. For Sri Lanka, it provides access to a regional knowledge network that strengthens resilience and improves preparedness for future disasters.
| “एक गाँव की सामान्य-सी कहानी जब Southasiadisasters.net में दर्ज होती है, तो वह पूरे क्षेत्र के लिए नीति-निर्माण का मार्गदर्शन बन जाती है। यही इसकी व्यापक प्रभावशीलता है।” “What begins as a community story in one village becomes a policy lesson for an entire region. That’s the ripple effect Southasiadisasters.net creates.” — Kamal Kishore, Member, NDMA, India |
| “क्षमता ही परिषदांमध्ये निर्माण होत नाही — ती समुदायांच्या दैनंदिन कृतींमधून आकार घेते. Southasiadisasters.net अशा कृतींचे दस्तऐवजीकरण करते, जे प्रेरणा देतात, माहिती पोहोचवतात आणि बदलाची ठिणगी पेटवतात.” “Resilience is not built in conferences—it is built in the everyday actions of communities. Southasiadisasters.net documents those actions so they inspire, inform, and ignite change.” — Mihir R. Bhatt, AIDMI, India |
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this piece are those of the author/s and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of AIDMI.
