Capacity building of disaster waste management for disaster risk reduction

Natural hazards are extreme events that could cause harm on both socio-economic and ecological systems which ultimately become major disasters. Therefore, identification of vulnerabilities and risks of major hazards are important for any country. Sri Lanka is also in the process of developing a risk profile of natural hazards after the Asian Tsunami of 2004. In this context, various national and local level workshops have been conducted for capacity building of non structural measures for disaster risk reduction. On this, this paper highlights a natural hazard: disaster waste which has high impact on disaster risk reduction, but given less attention in Sri Lanka where its creation and impact is unavoidable. Specially, absence of proper disaster waste management strategies eventually put health and safety of victims at a risk. Further, in the long term it affects increased frequency of disasters in spite of smaller impacts, such as floods. Thus, this paper highlights capacity gaps identified in post disaster waste management and its impact on disaster risk reduction. Semi structured interviews was conducted to collect data from stakeholders involved in disaster waste management at national and local levels. Unavailability of single point responsibility, statutorily enforceable rules and regulations and capacity constraints are identified as gaps in disaster waste management. Enhancement of administrative and operational level capacities of national agencies, specifically by granting legal powers and increasing awareness among the society will enable overcoming of above gaps.