Opinion

Lessons that should be learnt from Ditwah

Published

2 months ago

2025/12/9

Cyclonic storm Ditwah, named as such by Yemen referring to Detwah lagoon in one of its islands, caused severe devastation in Sri Lanka though it was categorised a weak tropical cyclone. When it hit on Thursday 27th November, the main problem was the unprecedented rain, some areas experiencing over 500 millimetres in 24 hours. Fortunately, wind speeds were not high reaching a maximum of only 45 mph, the sort of wind speed not infrequently encountered in the UK. In contrast, Hurricane Melissa, a category 5 storm which struck Jamaica, just a month ago, had winds reaching 185 mph! Though it was the most powerful storm to hit Jamaica ever, causing extensive damage across the island due to strong winds with added torrential rainfall causing landslides, the death toll was only 54 with further 15 people reported missing. It affected Cuba, Dominican Republic, and Haiti as well, with a further 48 deaths. Jamaicans were forewarned and were well prepared. It looks as if this did not happen in Sri Lanka. Though politicians are fighting over this aspect, despite it being not the priority, it is never too early to learn lessons. My comments that follow should not, in any way, detract from the very positive actions the government has taken and continues to do so, as well as the heroic efforts of volunteers putting their own lives at risk.

I did not realise the enormity till Friday (28) evening, when Ven. Teldeniyaye Amitha, who conducts a fortnightly Mindfulness meditation session over Zoom, told the participants that we should instead do Kindness meditation in view of the catastrophic situation in Sri Lanka. As soon as the session was over, I switched on to YouTube and was shocked by the images of destruction seen. When I contacted a good friend of mine in Kandy on Saturday 29th afternoon, what he told me made me realise that there were no warnings at all.

This lack of warning was not due to information being not available, I learned later. In fact, the DG of Meteorology has warned of an impending catastrophe when inclement weather was discussed on “Big Focus” programme broadcast over Derana TV on 12th November, in the presence of the DG of the Disaster Management Centre (DMC). It also further transpires that BBC World Service, the day before, accurately predicted that Cyclone Ditwah will cause heavy rainfall, up to 500mm, in Sri Lanka. Thus, there is no doubt that the government failed in its duty of adequate warning and taking action to minimise damage. Perhaps, it may have something to do with their labelling the DMC a ‘White Elephant’ in the past and threatening to dismantle it. Meteorological department’s lack of latest radar equipment is no excuse as information could be obtained from many sources. Some scientists whose sympathies are with the governing party seem to pronounce that weather predictions are unreliable. This may be so in the long term but, surely, BBC’s prediction the previous day, as well as the regular warnings sent by the Meteorological Service of India, should have been taken seriously. It is a great shame that the government does not seem prepared to admit that it made a mistake. Without that lessons cannot be learned!

It was disgusting to see a lady MP, who seems to be a loose cannon, having the audacity in parliament to blame Derana TV for broadcasting that programme! If true, it is more worrying that an opposition MP has stated in parliament that the Secretary of Defence has threatened the DG of Meteorology. In the latest turn of events, Deputy Minister Mahinda Jayasinghe has stated that the opposition should be sued for being silent on the weather warning! Does he not realise that by such loose talk he is helping the government to dig its own grave!

The other important question is whether the opening of sluice gates of reservoirs contributed to death and destruction. Some experts opine that had sluice gates been opened in advance to accommodate the expected torrential downpour, a significant amount of destruction and some deaths could have been avoided. This needs careful study, not to apportion blame, but to make sure that any future recurrences could be prevented. Considering the global changes in weather experienced, whatever the reason may be, we need to be prepared for this type of eventuality.

At a time of an unprecedented national emergency when cooperation of all was needed, the mudslinging on social media, both by supporters and opponents of the government, was despicable. There seems to be some truth to the accusations that the governing party goons hindered attempts by the opposition to help the affected, to claim credit for themselves! Do they think people in distress care whether ‘red stars’ are attached to aid packets?

The fact that the government seems incapable of taking criticism was made obvious by the actions of the Deputy Minister of Public Security. Though his Minister and the President subsequently denied that emergency powers would be used to suppress dissent,Watagala’s despicable behaviour, as well stated in the editorial “Emergency turns Jekyll into Hyde” (The Island, 5 December), deserves condemnation. There is a well justified suspicion that the Police are behaving as a paw of the ruling party, as two police officers with shadows over them were, plucked out of retirement, unashamedly appointed to two key positions as a reward for their political campaigning.

Perhaps, the comments made by Jaffna district MP, Dr Archchuna should make the government rethink, leave the past behind and act rationally. He told parliament that he had been rescued by Sinhala war heroes and sheltered in a Navy camp, criticising the government for insulting the armed forces. Considering the yeoman’s service rendered by the tri forces during this catastrophe, it is high time the governing party realised that service personnel are required at other times too, not only during war, and that they deserve the gratitude and the respect of the nation for saving us from terrorism too.

The best way to honour those who died during the recent disasters is by learning lessons from this tragedy so that we would be better equipped for any future emergencies. This could be done only if the government is prepared to eat humble pie and admit that mistakes were made. Do sincerely hope that they are big enough, and humble too, to do so!

By Dr Upul Wijayawardhana

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Opinion

Education needed about people not feeding wildlife

Published

11 hours ago

2026/02/15

Thilina Walpola

Being wildlife enthusiasts and bird watchers we took a river “safari” during a recent family trip to Bentota. We were dismayed to see that it seems to be the standard practice to feed the monkeys, I think they were the purple faced langurs, that were encountered on the river banks. Each boat that passed by stopped with boxed fruit, coconut and other odds and ends to feed them.

We managed to stop our guy from doing so but faced derision and laughter that we shouldn’t be afraid of monkeys. We tried to explain to him that this is a plague affecting Sri Lanka; elephants being fed on road sides and even in national parks, monkeys being fed from hotel balconies and apparently during river boat rides, birds being fed on hotel terraces etc.

This was met with further mockery and amused dismissal. An effort to make them understand that this was their livelihood that they were destroying it in this manner sailed over their heads. They even have a picture of a baby crocodile on the shoulders of a tourist on their billboard.

We need to consider the following:

Educate such tour operators about the importance of not interfering with the environment and the behaviour of wild animals.

Include education and training in the hotel school, and in schools in tourist resort towns about their duty and responsibility to the environment and the ecosystem on which we all depend.

If it is not already the case such operators should have licenses that should be revoked and fined if found to be engaging in such destructive acts.

Tamara Nanayakkara

Opinion

Capt. Dinham Suhood flies West

Published

2 days ago

2026/02/13

Thilina Walpola

A few days ago, we heard the sad news of the passing on of Capt. Dinham Suhood. Born in 1929, he was the last surviving Air Ceylon Captain from the ‘old guard’.

He studied at St Joseph’s College, Colombo 10. He had his flying training in 1949 in Sydney, Australia and then joined Air Ceylon in late 1957. There he flew the DC3 (Dakota), HS748 (Avro), Nord 262 and the HS 121 (Trident).

I remember how he lent his large collection of ‘Airfix’ plastic aircraft models built to scale at S. Thomas’ College, exhibitions. That really inspired us schoolboys.

In 1971 he flew for a Singaporean Millionaire, a BAC One-Eleven and then later joined Air Siam where he flew Boeing B707 and the B747 before retiring and migrating to Australia in 1975.

Some of my captains had flown with him as First Officers. He was reputed to have been a true professional and always helpful to his colleagues.

He was an accomplished pianist and good dancer.

He passed on a few days short of his 97th birthday, after a brief illness.

May his soul rest in peace!

To fly west my friend is a test we must all take for a final check

Capt. Gihan A Fernando

RCyAF/ SLAF, Air Ceylon, Air Lanka, Singapore Airlines, SriLankan Airlines

Opinion

Global warming here to stay

Published

2 days ago

2026/02/13

Thilina Walpola

The cause of global warming, they claim, is due to ever increasing levels of CO2. This is a by-product of burning fossil fuels like oil and gas, and of course coal. Environmentalists and other ‘green’ activists are worried about rising world atmospheric levels of CO2. Now they want to stop the whole world from burning fossil fuels, especially people who use cars powered by petrol and diesel oil, because burning petrol and oil are a major source of CO2 pollution. They are bringing forward the fateful day when oil and gas are scarce and can no longer be found and we have no choice but to travel by electricity-driven cars – or go by foot. They say we must save energy now, by walking and save the planet’s atmosphere.

THE DEMON COAL

But it is coal, above all, that is hated most by the ‘green’ lobby. It is coal that is first on their list for targeting above all the other fossil fuels. The eminently logical reason is that coal is the dirtiest polluter of all. In addition to adding CO2 to the atmosphere, it pollutes the air we breathe with fine particles of ash and poisonous chemicals which also make us ill. And some claim that coal-fired power stations produce more harmful radiation than an atomic reactor.

STOP THE COAL!

Halting the use of coal for generating electricity is a priority for them. It is an action high on the Green party list.

However, no-one talks of what we can use to fill the energy gap left by coal. Some experts publicly claim that unfortunately, energy from wind or solar panels, will not be enough and cannot satisfy our demand for instant power at all times of the day or night at a reasonable price.

THE ALTERNATIVES

It seems to be a taboo to talk about energy from nuclear power, but this is misguided. Going nuclear offers tried and tested alternatives to coal. The West has got generating energy from uranium down to a fine art, but it does involve some potentially dangerous problems, which are overcome by powerful engineering designs which then must be operated safely. But an additional factor when using URANIUM is that it produces long term radioactive waste. Relocating and storage of this waste is expensive and is a big problem.

Russia in November 2020, very kindly offered to help us with this continuous generating problem by offering standard Uranium modules for generating power. They offered to handle all aspects of the fuel cycle and its disposal. In hindsight this would have been an unbelievable bargain. It can be assumed that we could have also used Russian expertise in solving the power distribution flows throughout the grid.

THORIUM

But thankfully we are blessed with a second nuclear choice – that of the mildly radioactive THORIUM, a much cheaper and safer solution to our energy needs.

News last month (January 2026) told us of how China has built a container ship that can run on Thorium for ten years without refuelling. They must have solved the corrosion problem of the main fluoride mixing container walls. China has rare earths and can use AI computers to solve their metallurgical problems – fast!

Nevertheless, Russia can equally offer Sri Lanka Thorium- powered generating stations. Here the benefits are even more obviously evident. Thorium can be a quite cheap source of energy using locally mined material plus, so importantly, the radioactive waste remains dangerous for only a few hundred years, unlike uranium waste.

Because they are relatively small, only the size of a semi-detached house, such thorium generating stations can be located near the point of use, reducing the need for UNSIGHTLY towers and power grid distribution lines.

The design and supply of standard Thorium reactor machines may be more expensive but can be obtained from Russia itself, or China – our friends in our time of need.

Priyantha Hettige