Sri Lanka: post-tsunami environmental assessment

Following the launch of “Rapid Environmental Assessment Report” on 22nd February 2005, where UNEP advised countries hit by the tsunami to rebuild in a manner that preserves natural resources for the benefit of the local communities, a new report was issued in Colombo focusing on Post-tsunami assessments in the Maldives and Sri Lanka. The Maldives report reveals that the Indian Ocean tsunami caused a number of significant impacts on the Maldives environment. The UNEP report concluded that the tsunami generated approximately 290,000 cubic meters of waste on the country’s 69 inhabited islands that were severely damaged by the tsunami. The Sri Lanka report, on the other hand, confirms that in those areas with healthy coral reefs and mangroves, the impacts of the devastating events of December 2004 were significantly reduced.