By Amantha Perera
Dec 1 2011 (IPS)

Climate change hardly makes news here in Sri Lanka, except when there is a big international conference or a devastating natural calamity. Even then, it is mentioned as a passing anecdote, a scientific theory, removed from public discourse.

But experts, both local and international, however warn that climate change is indeed having a major impact on the daily lives of millions of this South Asian island nation of more than 20 million people. In all likelihood, it will increase in its potency ­ and the signs of the changing climate around us have been becoming all too evident.

In 2011, the country experienced three extreme weather events that many have attributed to changing climate patterns. In January and February, more than 1.8 million Sri Lankans were affected by massive floods ­ some areas in the east received a year’s worth of rain during one month during this period. The floods also took out 700,000 metric tonnes of a paddy harvest of 2.7m metric tonnes. When the rains finally stopped, they did not return for another 10 months, setting in a hard drought.

During the third week of November 2011, sudden gale-force winds and storms left a trail of destruction in the south ­ 29 dead, 15 missing, mostly fishermen out at sea and over 8,800 buildings damaged. Many of the victims said that government authorities had not forewarned them of the storm slamming into the island.