Under the
guidance of the Ministry of Housing & Construction, the
National Housing Development Authority (NHDA) has made
arrangements to train more than 1000 technical officers on
disaster housing management in coastal belt of Sri Lanka
within the next 03 months.
Tsunami Housing
Supporting Project (THSP) of German Technical Co-operation
(GTZ) with the assistance of Ministry of Economic
Co-operation and Development of Federal Republic of Germany
will be funded for this training programme.
The agreement on
this training programme was signed by the GTZ and NHDA
recently (17th April) at the Head Office of the
NHDA, Colombo. On behalf of the GTZ, Dr. Roland F.
Steurer, Sri Lankan Country Director of GTZ and Chairman of
NHDA, Mr. Mohamed Rafeek were signed this agreement.
Under the 1st
phase of this programme all technical officers who are
involved in the housing construction activities in coastal
belt of Sri Lanka will be trained on disaster housing
management activities. This training programme will conduct
based on the national guidelines for housing development in
coastal Sri Lanka which were published recently. It will
cover the natural disaster that might affected coastal belt
such as Tsunami tidal waves, earth thermos, floods and high
wings and this training programme will cover the settlement
planning, housing designs using the technology and materials
etc.
With this
programme all technical officers engaged in the housing
development activities attached to the government
institutions, local authorities and non-governmental
organizations in the districts of Colombo, Gampaha,
Kalutara, Galle, Matara, Hambantota, Jaffna, Puttalam,
Ampara, Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Kilinochchi will be
trained.
The NHDA
scheduled to conduct 35 districts training sessions for 1000
participants in all Tsunami affected districts in
preparation of this project. THSP of GTZ supported the NHDA
in the development of training models for the training
programmes and trained prospective technical officers to
function as facilitators for the training programmes.
After the
signing of this agreement, Dr. Roland F. Steurer, Sri Lankan
Country Director of GTZ said “It is important to quickly
re-house the people who displaced due to the natural
disaster like Tsunami. These activities are being
implemented in Sri Lanka with the assistance of foreign
governments as well as non-governmental organizations.
Today it is essential to construct socio economic conscious
and environmental friendly houses for these families.
The GTZ with the
assistance of THSP has worked out to achieve this goal to
make Sri Lankan housing sector for disaster preparedness to
face the future disasters by providing systematic training
to the technical officers who are engaged in the housing
development activities in coastal belt of Sri Lanka.”
The Chairman
of NHDA, Mr. Mohamed Rafeek addressing on this occasion said
“The NHDA was engaged in reconstruction activities of
Tsunami devastated areas based on the experience of 2 ½
decades of service in the housing sector of Sri Lanka. The
present training programme provides by the GTZ will help to
streamline the housing activities of the NHDA. The NHDA
constantly engaged in housing construction activities
according to house holders needs and it is always received
the participation of houses holders of housing construction
activities.”
The Director of
Tsunami Housing Supporting Project of GTZ, Mr. Piyal
Ganepola and Vice Chairman Mr. Dayananda Wijesinghe, Working
Director Mr. M.T.M. Sadik, General Manager Mr. Wasantha
Wijeratne of NHDA and several senior officials were present
on this occasion.
19th April 2006.
