By Avani Dias and Som Patidar

COLOMBO -During a brutal shift last year, Sri Lankan doctor Saman Kumara did something he’d never done before — he recorded a desperate voice message asking for help to keep newborn babies alive.

Dr Kumara was used to harrowing days working as a neonatologist at one of Colombo’s busiest hospitals during the COVID pandemic.

But on that day, he realized the country’s health system had collapsed to the point that precious lives were at risk.

One of Dr Kumara’s staff members told him his government hospital was running out of endotracheal tubes, a specialized item for infants. Without these crucial devices, newborn babies with breathing difficulties would die.

“I started shivering and crying,” he said.

Dr Kumara sent a desperate plea to a group of his former university classmates, asking for donations to replenish the endotracheal tube stocks and help keep babies alive.

Within a few hours, that message had gone viral.

“I had thousands and thousands of calls from all over the world and had a couple of sleepless days,” he said.

“In a few weeks, I got enough endotracheal tubes for the whole country, and I’m still getting stocks.”

This is how Dr Kumara and the rest of his hospital now get critical supplies, as Sri Lanka’s economic crisis diminishes medical stocks and other basic goods.

What started as a political and economic crisis has now turned into a national emergency: supplies for health, food, fuel, and power are all critical.

All over Sri Lanka, people like Dr Kumara are coming up with unconventional ways to survive.

As medical supplies deplete, they use social media to press for donations. Food is due to run out by September in the capital Colombo, so people are growing vegetables at home to prepare.

But these aren’t permanent solutions, and politicians warn things are going to get worse.

What’s happening in Sri Lanka is extraordinary — the unique unravelling of a once-middle-income nation that’s dramatically reshaping how people on the ground are living.

Pressure is now mounting on Australia to step in to help.

In an interview with the ABC, Sri Lanka’s new prime minister has called on the Australian government to send aid in the form of basic goods like medicine, food and fertilizer.

Sri Lankans are feeling the impacts of this crisis everywhere: on aisles at grocery stores, in lines at fuel stations, and at home when the power goes out for hours at a time.

The Sri Lankan rupee is now so low in value, and the cost of living escalated so radically, that more and more people cannot afford to buy or access essential items and services.

The majority of the country’s staples are imported, including medicine, food and fuel. But with the devalued rupee, Sri Lanka can no longer afford to buy them.

After years of chaotic fiscal mismanagement by the ruling Rajapaksa family, devastating health and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, and flow-on effects of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Sri Lanka has all but run out of foreign reserves.

Now the country is hitting breaking point. Many basic goods like fuel run out completely for days at a time, while others, like food, are projected to diminish in a few months.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who has just returned to office for a sixth term, was up front about just how bad things would get.

“There’s going to be a contraction of the economy and people are going to feel it very, very hard,” he told the ABC.

“I would like to see that things come to an end by about February — the suffering — but there is a path back.”

That means at least nine months of a bad situation getting much worse, according to the prime minister’s calculations.

Months of growing collective frustration led to protesters pushing out previous prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa in May. They’re continuing to call for his brother, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, to stand down as well.

Wickremesinghe, a member of an opposition party, said he took over the role of prime minister because no-one else would take the job.

Other opposition members said they would only take the position on numerous conditions, including the president giving up some of his power, something he did not agree to do.

“There was a crisis out on the street, there had to be some governance, there had to be direction, there had to be leadership,” Wickremesinghe said.

“You have to resurrect the economy … it’s a tough challenge but someone had to take it.”

But resurrecting the economy is easier said than done, and the prime minister has warned things will get worse before they get better.

The prospect of a worsening situation is of particular concern to medical professionals, who anticipate catastrophic health impacts if the situation does not improve.

Preethi Wijegoonewardene has worked as a GP for more than 40 years. He has managed to support his patients through the crisis until now, but he worries about what’s coming next.

“Worst-case scenario, if we don’t have the proper treatment, some of our patients will die,” he said.

“If it comes to it, we have to fight that and somehow get goods from somewhere.”

Dr Kumara expects June and July will be the worst.

“We have to struggle, we are expecting a lot of issues,” he said.

“We are concentrating on the life-saving drugs like cardiac drugs, anti-cancer drugs, and the drugs which are used for ICU patients.

“But from my point of view, at the rate we are being supported by the international organizations and the charities and individuals, I hope we can manage these two months without losing lives.”

As well as his regular job of saving newborn babies, Dr Kumara now spends time securing and facilitating medical donations. But it’s taking a toll.

“It’s very sad, I don’t know how many times I cried in the last three or four months because the donors are very sensitive,” he says.

“Many of the Sri Lankans living overseas, they’re very kind-hearted and so many people call me and cry.

“But we are working together as one community to save the country.”

Dr Kumara said aid from individuals and charities will not be enough, asserting that foreign governments like Australia need to step in to bring some permanent stability.

“There are a few ways the Australian government can help … in terms of providing medications, as well as consumables, and also funding, because our main problem is foreign currency,” he said.

While access to healthcare products is a crisis in the here and now, the larger-scale problem of food security is looming in the months ahead.

There’s been a global push for a four-day working week to improve mental wellbeing and productivity.

Sri Lanka introduced the concept for government employees on Tuesday (`14), but here, it’s a desperate move to give people a day off to grow their own food as supplies run out.

“It seems appropriate to grant government officials leave for one working day of the week and provide them with the necessary facilities to engage in agricultural activities in their backyards,” a cabinet statement said.

The United Nations estimates four out of five people in the country of 22 million are currently forced to skip meals.

There are now dire projections that Sri Lanka’s capital will run out of food by September.

Last year, the Rajapaksa government suddenly banned all chemical fertilizers — another expensive import — in an attempt to push the country towards nationwide organic farming and push down Sri Lanka’s import bill.

The experiment only lasted seven months, but that was enough time to see farmers’ crop yields drop and prices dramatically rise.

“There is going to be a shortage of food since we didn’t have sufficient fertilizer and we can’t depend on food from outside, because [of] the shortage created by the global prices,” Wickremesinghe told the ABC.

“I feel bad, I feel pretty bad.”

Colombo Mayor Rosy Senanayake was shocked to hear in a recent government briefing that Sri Lanka would run out of food in a few months.

“We have about 60,000 flats and apartments where a vast majority of the under-served community lives, and they have little balconies and small spaces,” she said.

“A technical team is mapping out … how to basically encourage people, give them the necessary tools, give them the seeds, give them incentives to do home gardening.”

Nanditha Gamage, a small business owner in Colombo, has been growing her own produce for years, but now it’s gone from a hobby to a necessity.

“Luckily Sri Lanka has a very good climate, you can grow vegetables throughout the year,” she said.

“Anyone can do it … they could use huge pots … but [the government] should actually tell them how to compost first of all, and every house should be given a compost bin and … some technical knowledge.”

But Gamage said it’s not going to fix the food shortage in the long term.

“It is an option but not a solution as such, because you can grow a few plants … but you have to buy some vegetables from the market, you can’t be self-sufficient,” she said.

“With everyone living in apartments and small houses, they’re not so lucky to have a plot where they can grow so many vegetables.”

On top of Sri Lanka’s local problems, the world is facing a looming food shortage, with Ukraine unable to export essential produce like wheat and maize while it fights Russia.

The United Nations estimates at least 5.7 million Sri Lankans now need humanitarian assistance, a number that’s set to increase.

On Thursday (17) , the United Nations’ World Food Program (WFP) started distributing ration packs with essentials to vulnerable families, and food vouchers to pregnant women in the poorest parts of Colombo.

The Sri Lankan prime minister said the country needs US$ 6 billion from foreign countries to keep the country afloat before supplies completely run out. That figure would cover fuel, food, fertilizer and gas for the next six months.

India, China and the US are all looking at helping Sri Lanka, and the country is also talking to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund for bailouts.

But Sri Lanka is still nowhere near that US$ 6 billion goal.

Wickremesinghe said Australia could assist.

“We need medicine, we need food, these are the ways in which Australia can help us,” he said.

“Fertilizer would be a great help for us. And some food aid to get over the next three critical months, but if we have fertilizer then we will get back into self-sufficiency by February next year.”

The crisis is also pushing people to leave the country.

In the past month alone, more than 370 Sri Lankans have tried to reach Australia on asylum seeker boats, and the Sri Lankan Immigration Department has been overwhelmed with almost 300,000 requests for passports.

In an extraordinary move, the Sri Lankan government has also said any public sector worker who wants to live abroad for work can get five years of unpaid leave and it won’t affect their position or pension.

It’s an attempt to get workers into foreign jobs so they can send currency back to Sri Lanka.

Wickremesinghe called on Australia to let some of those people in.

“Encourage more young Sri Lankans to come and study in Australia,” he said.

“Some of them may stay in Australia, others will come back, but that’s another way of building a future.

“Because the education system has got disrupted … so, let’s see some way in which they can be helped to get into Australia and study, I would like that.”

The Australian Coalition government pledged $2.5 million to Sri Lanka in food aid in April, but the new Labor government is yet to announce further assistance.

It’s expressed deep concern about the situation in Sri Lanka.

But Foreign Minister Penny Wong’s office did not respond to the ABC’s questions on whether the government would provide aid and extra places for students as requested by the country’s prime minister.

The United Nations is calling for US$ 66.6 million to meet urgent humanitarian needs, and the Australian Council for International Development (ACFID) has urged the Australian Government to contribute US$ 10 million of that figure.

“This is the time for Australia and its Quad partners to step up and help a fellow Indo-Pacific country that is in great need,” ACFID chief executive Marc Purcell said.

“It’s important for humanitarian reasons, but also geostrategic reasons — otherwise we face the prospect of China stepping into the breach.”

As the rest of the world grapples with economic insecurity, including Australia, where there are threats of a recession, Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister has a stark warning for leaders.

“Tell the truth to the people of how the economy functions,” Wickremesinghe said.

“Don’t do populist politics which will damage the economy.”

Sri Lankans are used to being resilient. They’ve endured decades of civil war, a recent terror attack, and the devastating impacts of the global pandemic, but the country has continually bounced back.

Now Sri Lankans, like Colombo hospital director Pradeep Wijesinghe, can only hope they’ll overcome this crisis too.

“Lord Buddha said, ‘everything is temporary’. I hope this situation is also temporary,” he said.

-abc.net.au