Faraz Shauketaly
(Broadcaster & Investigative Journalist)
Sri Lanka’s recovery from the devastating floods is starting whilst in some areas the people continue to be affected, trapped and otherwise challenged.
The inevitable search for answers and accountability has started as it will – when one is dealing with a well-informed populace.
There are many who claim that the Irrigation engineers did not release waters ahead of the disaster.
Of course, these are engineers not soothsayers. Professional men and women who know a little bit more than a thing or two about tech.
President AKD himself said – albeit before his ascendancy to the Presidency – that when it comes to managing rain waters and controlling or addressing floods gone are the days when you look at the clouds then say, ‘ it might rain’ and the next day you look at the rains and say my goodness it has rained heavily.
At the time MP AKD was critiquing the then powers in response to what is nearly a scheduled annual flooding, keeping the folks at Disaster Management gainfully employed. As a son of the soil personally I would like to see a proactive disaster prevention team in addition to the disaster management team. It’s like what my granny said – prevention is better than cure – and as a result, we were subject to drinking regular unadulterated liquid gotukola because it was a preventative measure.
The accusation now is that in the full knowledge (aided by the same tech that MP AKD spoke of) the relevant authorities did not manage the reservoirs in preparation for the predicted rainfall. That they started to empty reservoirs far too late.
It brings to my mind what was not done in the fortnight leading to the Easter Bombings – meaning that our intelligence authorities did not prewarn the Church and or tourism authorities and the public. In essence despite having intelligence – as opposed to information – these so-called experts in intel replete with super spies and who took on the ruthless terrorists with some considerable success simply omitted sharing this valuable knowledge with the citizenry. Not the details but with a heightened security apparatus deployed. The resulting callousness remains unforgivable.
My point is without ambiguity.
Advance intelligence on Easter Attacks (for whatever convoluted reason) was suppressed, and the public safety was compromised.
It now appears that advanced technology and therefore ‘intelligence’ surrounding the unprecedented rains was (for whatever convoluted reason) ignored – again compromising the safety of the public.
Will there be a Presidential Commission appointed under the Presidential Commissions Act to investigate these claims – or to put it another way, will (like we asked for during the Bond scam) there be a forensic audit of the events we write about in terms of the flooding?
It’s a Big Question.
