Study on housing units locate in very high and high landslide hazard prone areas of Hali-Ela divisional secretariat division, Sri Lanka

Landslides are one of the major natural disasters that occur in Sri Lanka resulting in loss of lives and severe damages to livelihoods and property. Landslide hazard mapping project was launched to study and identify the distribution of landslide potential in central highland of Sri Lanka. Spatial distribution of risk buildings locate in very high and high landslide hazard prone areas are being identified through 1:10,000 scale landslide hazard maps prepared for the lowest administrative units called Grama Niladari Divisions. A building survey is carried out in housing units, commercial/institutions, religious places and schools, which are located in very high and high hazard landslide prone areas of the Badulla District. This paper presents the results of the building survey carried out in housing units locate in very high and high landslide hazard prone areas of Hali-ela D.S Division in the Badulla District. The empirical evidence revealed ten pertinent issues, livelihood of the families rely on lands in landslide prone areas; designing of houses without professional support; construction of houses without approval obtained from relevant authorities; construction of houses without obtaining landslide clearance certificate; construction of houses on steep slope (>31°) terrain; change of land morphology for construction of houses; presence of tell-tale landslide signs at the vicinity of houses; having no drainage system to discharge rain water; possibility of access road to the settlement damage by disaster; inadequate instructions to inhabitants on disaster preparedness; and housing units built without the support of professionals, to protect against landslide hazard and reducing landslide disaster risks.