National Building Research Organisation

As shown in the Figure 1 and the Tables 1 and 2, a large number of landslides have occurred in the country during the past six decades. A significant number of landslides have been recorded in the Nuwara Eliya District within last five years. Walapane and Haguranketha Divisions were the severely affected within Nuwara Eliya District due to major landslides such as Ladupitiya, Munwatta, Akkaraseeya, Kadurukade, Maahawewa, Uda padiyapelella, Elamulla Junction, Pilapitiya, Muloya Oak watta, Handawalapitiya, Ritiella, Pussalapitiya, Madulla and Wettasthenna. More than 400 families were displaced in the year 2007due to above landslides and majority of the evacuated families still live as IDP in Walapane Division. The resettlement process is very slow, as mentioned earlier, due to lack of suitable land. Therefore, stabilization of slopes in landslide prone areas and introduce better land use and construction practices are identified as an essential component to reduce the landslide risk.

Table 02: Damages caused by the Landslides occurred in January 2007 in Nuwara Eliya District (Source: NBRO)

Fig 01

The broad objectives for the proposed project are as follows,

(a)   To prevent and mitigate the landslide in Sri Lanka with a holistic approach to address the root causes of landslides

(b)        To introduce geotechnical mitigation options to minimize landslide vulnerability

(c)        To introduce cost effective mitigatory measures to reduce the future landslides

(d)        To introduce good construction practices and land use practices for landslide risk reduction

(e)        Reconsideration of development activities and human settlement activities on stabilized landslide prone areas with a view to introduce optimal land utilization

(f)         Implement and regularized the construction guidelines and best land use practices through the local government authorities

(g)       Incorporate landslide disaster risk reduction into local planning