Web of Life

K. R. Abhayasingha,Acting Director (Operational Meteorology),Department of Meteorology,Colombo 7The disasters are two types, natural and unnatural. Natural events, mostly climatic, result in natural disasters and the unnatural (or man made) disasters are those resulted by human intervention. War is one good example for a man made disaster. Since the human intervention is considerable, global warming, urbanization, deforestation, sea level rise and ozone depletion can also be categorized as man made disasters.Except the war, the influences of man made disasters are well felt even by the developed (first world) countries. For this reason a number of countries and institutes have programs of monitoring the causes and effect of such disasters. Not only that, many research projects are being conducted to find solutions to the problems and to find how to prevent and mitigate those disasters. It is glad to hear that many countries and institutes like WMO, FAO, UNDP, IPCC, IRI are in the field now. The purpose of this article is not talking of the man made disasters but drawing the attention of all concerned to a very important natural disaster in our country.Lightning is hazardous because the electric current of a ground lightning flash is about 25,000 Amperes (25000 A) and the potential difference between a charged cloud and the earth is about 100 million Volts resulting in an energy of about 500 million Watts per flash.Information of lightning incidents in Sri Lanka witnesses for over 50 deaths of human beings and damage to property valued billions of rupees every year. Even though the statistics are not available, apparently the lightning-caused death toll decreases gradually.The Department of Meteorology has surveyed hundreds of incidents with death and damage caused by lightning. The observations disclose an important fact to be considered seriously.Majority of the lightning-caused deaths has been reported from the category of working community of the nation. His is very unfortunate thing to hear. In reality, working community is the spirit of a nation. But things are happening so that they are recognized as people in a lower category in the priority list. A person of the working community is valued at Rs. 5000 or 10000/= and hence, even economically, the poor or the working community has no value to be regarded as an important part of the nation. It may be for this reason, that lightning has not been so far merited to be listed as a natural disaster, in our country while cyclones, droughts, landslides etc. have already been listed. When the death toll and the amount of damage caused by lightning is concerned, it should be placed in a higher line of the list of natural disasters in Sri Lanka . The present day technology is capable of forecasting, in advance, the threat of disasters caused by cyclones, heavy rain, abnormal warmness or high temperature and wind parameters. But even with the modern best technology available, the location of a lightning flash is not an easy thing to forecast with several hours in advance. Therefore, death by lightning is really a disaster since the victims face hazards with a great uncertainty. This is common to all nations living in lightning prone areas of the world .Besides the above fact, the poor and the people of the working class have many more other reasons to become the majority of the victims of lightning.Studies of lightning incidents in Sri Lanka have shown that the most of lightning strikes occur in the evening particularly during 2pm to 9 pm with a maximum during 4 to 7 p.m. (see figure. 1). During which the working community is normally exposed to the environment. Many of them return home after day’s work during these peak hours.Some farmers usually are at work in the paddy fields or tea estates or a construction site. Some of them take their day’s wash or the bath at wells in open places, which are vulnerable to lightning. In rural areas the working community has the practice of taking the wash or the bath from the rain water falling down from the roof gutter during rains. If the gutter is metallic like aluminium, being under such a gutter during thunderstorms is very dangerous because the probability of attracting lightning flashes by contacting metallic objects is high.A number of steps has been taken to make the people aware of lightning and its hazards. But the response to the precautionary steps is still not at its proper level. When the working class is concerned, there are some other important facts to be thought of. There are many of the working community who have the understanding of lightning and precautionary measures to reduce lightning hazards. But in reality, even though the working people want to consider the precautions like moving to a safer place, they have no choice other than engaging at due work even in a vulnerable atmosphere. Stopping work will result in trimming of the day’s wage.Another matter leading to higher proportion of lightning victims among the working community is their living conditions particularly in many hilly areas of the country. Most of the lands donated to the poor are hilltops (or deserted areas) that have no demand from any other communities. And the funds (Rs.5000 or 10000) donated for construction of a house is just adequate to put up a hut with aluminum sheet covered roof. Both of these parameters (high elevation and metallic roof) enhance the vulnerability of a location in thunderstorms. For these reasons and some more, the high proportion of working community affected by lightning strikes is unavoidable unless some relief is thought of nationally. More important thing to be pointed out is the unfortunate state such a person or a family has to face after lightning has caused a disaster. There have been many instances where the poor have faced very sad an unavoidable problems and red tapes after they were affected by lightning. One grandmother had to go after so many officers to get some help to support three children who lost both parents when a single lightning flash struck them. Many victims in working community who have fallen sick after lightning strikes are facing great financial problems in getting medicine for continuing sicknesses.National understanding of lightning is fairly satisfactory now. But there should be a national programme or a plan to give a hand to the poor and the working community in case of lightning hazards. As a start, I think lightning has to be listed as a natural disaster in the national level. Then the country should have a national programme or a scheme to take necessary action to give all support and funds to victims of lightning. It is important to stress the fact that in case of lightning incidents, the victims cannot cheat the observers or decision-makers on the cause of death or damages. All concerned have to take steps to organize a reasonably satisfactory national programme to help victims of the natural disaster, lightning .