Sri Lanka has shown a remarkable capacity to repeat mistakes, with few or no lessons learnt, each time over. The climate-driven food security crisis in the South of the island, is a bitter reminder that the state apparatus remains in the ‘response’ mode, and has yet to switch to the ‘prevention and preparedness’ role, Sri Lankans had hoped would happen after the economic and political turmoil of the last two years. There can be no reasonable argument that prevention of the massive crop loss due to the predicted and prevailing drought takes priority over a few hours of power loss. Having faced a food security crisis over the last one and half years, the need to build capacity, and ensure crop loss was minimised are lessons which were already learnt. As such, the Government must prioritise supply of water for crops and drinking purposes over power generation.

A food security crisis will affect the entire country, and the impact will be felt by those who are already struggling to get by. Those who will be hit, will be those who are already vulnerable. A food shortage will take a toll on children and the elderly. Given the current economic climate, with unemployment and utility bills on the rise, families will once again be forced to prioritise one or two meals instead of three. With concerns about drought affecting many parts of the region, compounded by the Russia–Ukraine crisis, Sri Lanka may not see the generous support it received last year. This is why the government must act now to save whatever crops that can be salvaged. Delays will indeed cause disaster when it comes to food on the table.

Nevertheless, Sri Lanka’s climate resilience and preparedness have shown to be lacking, with the state scrambling to ensure adequate supply for crop and paddy cultivations downstream in one of Sri Lanka’s largest agrarian zones. A question that many line-ministries and state agencies need to answer is why the red flags were ignored? Experts had predicted a drop in rainfall for this year, July–August were tipped to be one of the hottest on record. If the Met department, the Ministries of Irrigation, Power, and Agriculture had been doing its job, the data would have made it clear that there was a crisis over the horizon. It seems that the subject Ministers and the state officials disregard the gravity of the issue. Last June, the Minister of Agriculture announced that Sri Lanka had ample stocks of rice and several other crops to last till the end of December. Three weeks later, the Minister was calling for every citizen to grow crops on every patch of available land. If one could ignore the tragedy that is unfolding, the government’s communication regarding food security would be fit for a comedy show.

Every year, multiple United Nations agencies, and well-meaning donor countries, pump millions of dollars into the Sri Lankan state apparatus, hoping that the capacity building and up-skilling they pay for will contribute to the island nation being better prepared. Such is spoken of disaster preparedness, resilience building, to use a favourite phrase of the President, ‘modernise and digitise the agro industry. However, all such efforts and funds come to naught, if the State turns a blind eye to critical data and doesn’t communicate effectively between themselves. Going by past experience, the state may simply appoint another ‘Committee’ to investigate the ‘decision or lack thereof’ which led to this unfolding food security disaster, content that due – post-incident reviews were being carried out. Such belated action, will do little to help the farmers, who cultivate, incurring debt, and the cash strapped consumer, who may again have to prioritise which meal to lay on the table.

Another party complicit in this tragedy of unfolding errors, is the Ministry of Power and Energy, the Ceylon Electricity Board, and the energy sector regulators. If the above-mentioned state entities moved quickly to integrate more renewable energy to the national grid, from 2016, reliance on hydro power would be less, by 2023. Further, failures to improve the transmission grid, induct more firm power options, and the short-sightedness of not introducing energy storage systems, like the battery bank, established in Australia, China, the Nordic region and the US, could have mitigated the need to be depended on hydropower, today.     

This is not to say, the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) and the government should be given a blank check to once again switch on controversial emergency power purchases, which have long been criticised. The CEB and successive governments have ignored the national grid connectivity and generation shortcomings in the South and have been putting off rectifying the issue. Perhaps, the convenient availability of ‘emergency purchase practice’ made the issue less of a priority for decision makers.  

Sri Lanka needs to take climate resilience, food and energy security more seriously. Priority should be to ensure the public has the basics necessities, such as food, water and shelter. Have we learnt nothing over the last 70 years? Act now.