Financial Times

National disaster issues discussed by IESL

Sri Lanka's national disaster situation was discussed at an emergency council meeting of the Institution of Engineers, Sri Lanka, (IESL) recently.

President of the Institution, Eng. Prof. L.L. Ratnayake said that as a responsible professional institution, the IESL should help the government and the public to carry out rehabilitation work efficiently and in a planned manner.

"It is the general consensus that the IESL should help at a professional level by providing professional advice and by coordinating the activities of engineering organizations in the affected areas rather than by trying to collect food items and so on as there are many other organizations doing that," he said.

Eng. (Ms.) G. Karunaratne (Centre for Housing Planning and Buildings) and Eng. R.M.S. Bandara (National Building Research Organization) explained the activities of the Disaster Mitigation Project and the NBRO. They said that during the recent disaster it had been possible to prevent many casualties because of the success of the awareness campaign carried out by these two agencies. If not for this, the number of casualties would have been much higher.

The IESL suggests that for long-term measures, there should be a sustained publicity campaign in order to create public awareness, and requested the government to prepare the necessary legal framework to establish a National Disaster Management Authority, and for the institute's Development and Professional Activities Committee to immediately look into measures to be taken in the event of a possible earthquake.