Abstract:
Recently, it has been witnessed that flood is the burgeoning catastrophe in Sri
Lanka when compared with all the other calamities recorded. Depending on
the temporal and regional intensity and the broad spectrum of destruction, it
has been recognized as one of the most predominant disasters in Sri Lanka.
The awareness of victims who live in the endangered area and launching
strategies for avoiding significant impacts are required to adapt to disasters.
Accordingly, victimized proportions of the flood have vigorously adapted to
vulnerable situations rather than leaving their homelands and disrupting their
daily routines. This study becomes significant in providing theoretical and
validated impulses beyond any limits, typically imposed by a culture of safe
and exemplifies the essential elements to provide adaptive strategies to flood
victims in “Megoda Kolonnawan GN division” practiced prior the incident, at
the moment and after the incident. Kolonnawa was found to be the largest
flood-affected DS Division in Sri Lanka. Out of 46 GN divisions of
Kolonnawa DSD, “Megoda Kolonnawa – A” GND has been identified as the
most vulnerable area to flood disasters. A sample of 3 % of the total population
which is, 2347 households of the GND was selected for the study. The
stratified sample method was used to select GN Division and the Simple
Radom Sampling method was used to select 70 units of households from the
GN Division. The study was carried out using primary and secondary data
collected using questionnaires, interviews, and observations. Quantitative and
qualitative methods were used to analyze the data. This study revealed the fact
that “Identifying the strategies of adapting to the flood” is becoming the main
approach from the villagers as well as the government and non-government
offices. Maintaining initiate communication with each other to gather at a safe
place where the government has approved in vulnerable situations is the most
common strategy. Similarly, increasing the physical values of the buildings
and coordination with the government engineers to get the appropriate
building plans are the most common strategies recorded within the past few
decades.
