Abstract:
The southwestern monsoons in Sri Lanka have resulted in severe flooding and landslides throughout the country. The previous drought has accelerated the effects of flooding causing flash floods and small landslides. Over half a million people have been affected with over 200 deaths .The Matara District deaths 31,people Affected 176,975,Families Affected 43,382, Houses Damaged 4946, Houses Destroyed: 947, In Evacuation Centres: 6,111, Most Affected DS Divisions:Matara,Akurassa, Kamburupitiya,Athuraliya,Malimbada and Tihagoda. At present the need of disaster management has become necessary due to rapid increase of population and their vulnerability for disasters. Accordingly it is in Asia the largest number of deaths due to natural disasters are reported. These natural disasters include earth quakes, landslides, fire, flood, storms etc. Among them floods can be noted as the natural disaster which has adversely affected in Sri Lanka at present. Floods occurred as a result of Mora storm affected vast area and the major cause for increasing the effect was harmful human activities made on earth. Therefore in this study harmful human activities which affected increase of flood disaster experienced within the area of Matara Town were studied. In addition troublesome situation currently existing in this area and measures that can be taken to minimize these disastrous situations were also studied in this study. Accordingly higher percentage of adverse and harmful human activities could be seen in the areas like Thudawa and Godagama in Matara Town area. In this study it was revealed that major cause for increasing a disastrous situation of this type is higher population residing in these areas and changes they have made in the natural environment. Therefore the need of a disaster management methodology for minimizing the damage caused by natural disaster like this has become essential.
