• Claims that DMC has alternative warning mechanism operational

The failure of a majority of tsunami warning siren towers is due to lack of funds to reactivate them, The Daily Morning learns. 

However, when contacted the Disaster Management Centre (DMC) yesterday (27) claimed that the faulty towers had no impact on the country’s Tsunami warning mechanism.

It was recently reported that most of the Tsunami warning towers installed in the coastal areas of the country are out of order. The reports said about eleven of them could be activated from the DMC and nine from the location while the other 57 warning towers were completely out of order.

 When contacted by The Daily Morning yesterday (27), DMC Director General Major General (Retired) Sudantha Ranasinghe said that many other ways and systems empowered with new technology have been introduced by the DMC to warn of possible Tsunami threats. He said that a part of the warning tower system is currently inoperative and it will cost about Rs. 210 million to reactivate the system.

 However, he further noted that this system which was introduced during the period of 2006-2009, covers only 154 kilometres (km) out of 1400 km which is the country’s total coastal length. Therefore he said the allegations made by some parties such as the inoperative warning tower system would increase the Tsunami threat, are baseless. “Actually these towers were established during the time when there was the internal conflict. Therefore, the then Government could not establish these towers all over the coastal line. It was a time when new technological concepts and devices were not very popular. Accordingly, many consider this warning tower system to be the most suitable system. But now we have tried to deal with it with new technology,” he said.

The Director General also stated that there are many new ways and systems have been introduced to issue pre-warnings, therefore there people must not be afraid of any possible disaster. “We have a very wide system of communication. The DMC is connected with the tri forces, Police Department, hospitals, hotels, religious places. There are separate units in the military and the Police. They have Tsunami Evacuation Plans and warning methods. Accordingly the DMC is empowered with this kind of network,” he said.

Speaking about the newly introduced Tsunami alert system, Maj. Gen. Ranasinghe said that the system targets nearly sixty thousand (60,000) mobile and landline numbers in 14 districts along the coastal belt of which are identified as high-risk areas. He further said that it is designed to promptly issue an immediate early warning in the form of a distinctive “Ring Tone” notification accompanied by a siren sound, which is very similar to alarming systems used in the military.