Environmental Sociology of Floods in the Colombo District of Sri Lanka

Abstract

Sri Lanka is an island which is called the ‘Pearl of the Indian Ocean’, lying to the south-east of India, in a major strategic location of the South Asian Region. Sri Lanka has been exposed to a large number of disasters in the past few decades. Among those disasters, flooding is prominent and it impacts not only miscellaneous aspects of people’s lives but also the changing of environmental structure. Against this background, an environmental sociological study was particularly utilized to identify and find resolutions to the massive range of impacts caused by flooding in the urban sector. The research was conducted using explorative methodology and questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were administered to collect data from Kohilawaththa and Kolonnawa in the Colombo West. The study revealed that the people’s activities are based on less environmental consciousness which impact on increasing environmental degradation as well as flooding. Besides, the land usage, urbanization, culture of vulnerability and political authorization create more vulnerable context within this flood-prone areas. Apart from that, people were displaced and their living status is unstable with the complexity of the pattern of flood frequency. Moreover, this disaster adversely interrupts sustainable development effort of the country and re-directs the development.