The Hon. Major General (Rtd.) Aruna Jayasekera - Deputy Minister of Defence

¶ 01 Hon. Speaker, Hon. Kins Nelson’s Question was submitted before Cyclone “Michaung” (“8967” in OCR). Many statistics have since changed. The reply is lengthy; with permission, I table the answer.

¶ 02 Answer tabled.

¶ 03 (b) Not applicable.

¶ 04 [Tabled content summarised: Annual disaster incidents, persons affected, and compensation paid (2015–2025.10.31); Department of Meteorology expenditures for weather forecasting and Doppler radar tax/duty reimbursements; Disaster Management Centre recurrent and capital expenditures by heads (2015–2025.11); Disaster Relief Services Centre expenditures (2015–2025.10.31); National Building Research Organisation (NBRO) project expenditures (2015–2025 Nov) including landslide investigations, early warning network expansion, landslide risk reduction programmes, resettlement technical guidance, building assessments, LRAR reports, and SATREPS/JICA project; Totals by agency. Measures include legal/policy frameworks under the Disaster Management Act No. 13 of 2005, national and emergency operation plans, pre-monsoon district/divisional committees, UN-CDLG local risk reduction plans, integrating DM into school curricula, climate adaptation programmes, increased death compensation from Rs. 250,000 to Rs. 1,000,000 (circular 1/2025), 5,025 new houses for high-risk landslide families, initiating building codes for disaster-resilient environments, mandating NBRO recommendations for construction in landslide-risk areas, hazard mapping and awareness, preparedness plans at district/divisional levels, 117 hotline and 24/7 National Emergency Operations Centre (2407), reservoir-community preparedness, first aid/search and rescue/camp management public programmes, hospital emergency preparedness, CBRN-E response mechanism, Kelani River flood risk technical project, post-disaster needs assessments, engineering mitigations and resettlement, allocation of Rs. 50 million in 2025 for safe location facilities, provision of equipment/resources through district/divisional administrations, special investigations and pre/post measures for landslides, and early warnings before extreme weather.]