SL seeks ways to turn ‘El Niño’ pain into gain!

Rice farmer Weerasinghearchchilage Darmarathana is used to periodic flooding in his low-lying village of Galella in central Sri Lanka.

The 60-year-old has lived all his life on the flood plains of the country’s longest river, the Mahaweli, in Polonnaruwa District, some 250 km northeast of the capital Colombo.

"It used to be maybe twice, three times a year the road would go under, but the last year has been insane," said the paddy farmer.

In his recollection, Galella has never been flooded with the same frequency as in the last two months of 2015. The village was hit six times in less than two months, Darmarathana said, after unusually heavy rains battered the region in November and December.

Over a million people were marooned in Sri Lanka’s Northern, North Central and Eastern Provinces, and over 400 homes and other buildings were destroyed.

An advisory issued by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) in early December attributed the rains to the current El Niño weather phenomenon, likely to be the strongest since 1997-1998. Extreme rainfall also caused havoc in India late last year, including extensive flooding in the city of Chennai.

"The consensus that strong El Niño conditions has led to abnormal rainfall during the northeast monsoon season in South Asia indicates that El Niño had a part to play in the sequence of extreme weather events in India," the ESCAP advisory said.

Excessive El Niño-linked rainfall across southern India and northern Sri Lanka was expected to continue into early 2016, it added. Sri Lankan authorities said they were prepared.

"Historically El Niño has meant more rains in this region, so we have been making our predictions on those lines," said Lalith Chandrapala, head of the island’s Department of Meteorology.

Chandrapala said the country could be in a position to benefit from the El Niño-induced rains, which began in mid-November on the back of a weak monsoon he assessed to be 75 percent below average.

"We have been telling agencies like the Department of Agriculture to advise farmers to prepare for rains," he said.

The ESCAP report also noted that the waters from the current bout of rains could be used for the upcoming planting season.

As the heavy rains struck when there was no harvest, agricultural losses have been negligible.

Pradeep Koddiplili, deputy director at the Disaster Management Centre, said no warnings had yet been issued for potential El Niño-related crop damage, mainly because the rains had coincided with the preparation of fields for planting. But disaster risk experts working in rural areas say awareness of changing weather patterns remains low and could prevent farmers making the most of the unseasonal rains.