|
"GROUNDWATER IN
SRI LANKA - A MOST PRECIOUS BUT HIGHLY THREATENED RESOURCE"
Synopsis of a
Workshop Organized by NASSL |
|
A
workshop organized by the National Academy of Sciences, Sri
Lanka (NASSL) in collaboration with the Water Resources Board (WRB)
and the Department of Civil Engineering, University of
Peradeniya was held from 24 - 26 February 2008 in Anuradhapura
to discuss the current situation and issues relating to the
groundwater resources of Sri Lanka. The workshop was attended by
scientists from a wide spectrum of disciplines. A synopsis of
the proceedings is given below.
The
workshop commenced with a field visit to a Small Tank Cascade
system at Tirappane led by Dr. C. R. Panabokke. This was
followed by a visit to the Korakahawewa Centre of the WRB where
a briefing was made by Prof. M. de S. Liyanage, Chairman
of the Water Resources Board about its groundwater-related work
programmes.
The workshop proper comprised 23 papers presented in 6 sessions,
with a lively discussion at the end of each session. In his
opening remarks, Prof. Arjuna Aluvihare mentioned the
multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional nature of the
groundwater issues and drew attention to the fact that the
National Academy of Sciences was well placed to bring together
specialists from such a wide variety of technical backgrounds
and institutions to address the multi-faceted problems that
beset the groundwater subsector. The Chief Guest, Prof. C. B.
Dissanayake set the multi-disciplinary tone for the workshop
in a groundbreaking paper in which he introduced the concept of
Medical Geology. The multi-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary
aspect was further brought out by the participation of
geologists, soil scientists, agriculturists, plant scientists,
irrigations engineers, groundwater specialists, chemists,
medical and dental specialists, economists, sociologists, gender
specialists, environmentalists and others. Dr. Gemunu Herath
took an overall look at sustainable groundwater management and
policy needs in his paper. He particularly emphasized the lack a
data base and systematic monitoring of groundwater parameters, a
lack which was to be echoed in many of the papers that followed.
The first technical session dealt with Groundwater Quality
and Quantity Issues. The current state of investigations on
groundwater in Sri Lanka was described and five levels of
investigation needed to make informed decisions on groundwater
use were outlined. Another paper presented a similar survey of
the quality issues in groundwater use. A very interesting
problem which frequently faces scientists and technical
specialists dealing with groundwater issues was highlighted by
one presenter. He described, from his own experience, how he had
to make technical judgments and take decisions to act on the
basis of the limited data that were available at that time.
This is a real-life problem that faces many scientists i.e.
making judgments without waiting for all the data to come in.
One speaker highlighted the limited nature of the groundwater
resource in the hard rock regions by comparing it to money in a
bank account, where withdrawals had to be counterbalanced by
deposits from time to time.
The second session was devoted to Groundwater Policy.
Institutional gaps in groundwater policy management were
highlighted. While many attempts had been made to develop a
groundwater policy, none were being implemented. A master plan
for groundwater management and development was mooted by one
speaker. Another speaker mentioned the burning issues of water
policy (!) and dealt with the mistakes made in the past in the
donor-driven policies which spoke of registering all wells and
other measures which were unacceptable to the vast majority of
households and farmers. Challenges that need to be addressed
were spelled out. Prof. Aluvihare proposed a follow-up to
this workshop to draw up a draft national groundwater policy.
The third technical session, which dealt with Groundwater Use,
focused on quality issues, including fluoride in the groundwater
in Anuradhapura district. Groundwater problems in Ruhuna stemmed
mainly from the tsunami and its aftermath. It appeared that just
as the wells were recovering from the salinity and other
impurities brought in by the tsunami, people who had been
provided with emergency pipe borne water supplies were filling
up their wells. Another interesting paper drew attention to the
relation between the water table behaviour in different elements
of the landscape and micro-variability in the occurrence of
salts and fluorides. It threw light on the mystery of the
multiplicity of tanks almost running into each other in the
cascade systems of this semi-arid environment, which indicated
that not all tanks were built for irrigation, but that some
served only as storage tanks to replenish the water table in the
cultivated areas and/or to recharge the tanks in use.
The fourth technical session dealt with Health Issues in
groundwater use. An overview of the health problems caused by
the contamination of groundwater by various agents was given.
The lack of systematic data for diseases originating from the
consumption of groundwater was underscored. Papers specifically
dealing with the health issues in the North Central Province,
viz. dental and skeletal fluorosis and chronic kidney disease
were presented, leading to a general consensus that a
multi-disciplinary task force was required to conduct
investigations on these problems. A number of lines of
investigation involving research into Aluminum interactions and
epidemiological studies of records maintained by MOHs and PHIs
were discussed. Appropriate methods of prevention such as the
distribution of cheap defluoridators and the use of
unconventional additives for purification and clarification such
as “murunga” (Moringa oleifera) seed powder were
suggested.
The workshop ended with a Summing-up/ Plenary Session in
which cross-cutting issues such as the gender dimension in
groundwater access and use, environmental issues and research
needs were discussed. The workshop also discussed the time and
labour spent by women in collecting and transporting water, the
failure and lack of maintenance of tube wells, the need to
regulate the use of ground water when the resource is limited,
the need for training and the need to conduct strategic
environmental assessments when any large scale project is
mooted. A special presentation was made by Mr. A. D. N.
Fernando outlining his studies on the groundwater resources
of Sri Lanka over many years. He emphasized the need for
aligning the administrative boundaries in Sri Lanka with the
watershed boundaries and drew attention to the need for
conjunctive use of water resources in the country’s development
programmes.
The objective of the plenary session was to formulate policy
recommendations to achieve sustainable groundwater utilization
in Sri Lanka. Following a lively discussion in which
participants from all the disciplines and institutions
represented at the workshop participated, it was concluded that:
-
On account of the fact that the NASSL draws its membership
from all disciplines involved, it would be the most
appropriate body to carry this exercise forward towards
developing a national groundwater policy, within the context
of an overall national water policy for Sri Lanka
-
The NASSL should organize a follow-up workshop to develop
such a national policy. Some felt that it would be better
to draw up a set of recommendations and guidelines for the
protection and utilization of the groundwater resource
rather than get bogged down in formulating a national
policy.
-
The proceedings of this workshop should be published by
NASSL
and all authors should submit their full papers to the
editor of the NASSL
|
News > Nanowerk
Research and General News >
Posted: June 6, 2008
Brightest X-ray
vision at the nanoscale
(Nanowerk News) Technology-development studies
at Cornell University and Jefferson Laboratory
are showing how to use the brightest X-ray light ever generated for the
scientific examination of everything from human proteins to forged art.
X-ray beams from an energy-recovery linac
(linear accelerator) could be both a thousand times brighter and a thousand
times faster--with pulses as brief as one ten-thousandth of a billionth of a
second--than current state-of-the-art synchrotron X-ray sources.
"We're closer than ever to building a kind of universal
toolkit for all the science and engineering disciplines," says Joel D.
Brock, a Cornell
University professor of
applied and engineering physics.
"To date, the best-existing X-ray diffraction machines
like CHESS (the Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source) have given us
‘snapshots' of life--still pictures, for instance, of a particular virus. ERL
will give us 3-D movies as the virus moves, grabs on to a cell and propagates
disease. We will have X-ray vision at the nano-scale,"
Brock predicts, suggesting some questions to be answered:
· Can excited-state
studies of photosynthesis yield less expensive, more efficient solar energy?
· If deep-earth
pressures and temperatures turn ordinary carbon into diamond, what will those
forces do to carbon nanotubes?
· What really happens in
the split second when a stem cell "decides" to become heart muscle?
But an equally pertinent question for Brock and other
advocates of the next-generation of X-ray sources is this: How much longer
can biomedical researchers, chemists, materials and environmental scientists,
engineers, nanotechnologists and biophysicists maintain their competitive
advantages without an instrument like ERL?
How ERLs Work
Moving beyond traditional X-ray crystallography systems--where
the arrangement of atoms in crystalline material is revealed by analyzing the
way X-ray beams are scattered from electrons in the crystal--the
energy-recovery linac offers significant advantages.
For one, materials subjected to ultrabright X-ray
pulses need not be in crystalline form. And the tightly focused beam allows
studies at much smaller scales.
This photocathode
gun produces high-energy X-ray beams. (Image: CLASSE, Cornell University)
As envisioned and invented by experimental physicists at
Cornell, energy-recovery linear accelerators produce high-energy, pulsed
X-ray beams by injecting electrons into the electromagnetic fields of a
series of superconducting microwave cavities in a linear accelerator. Then,
in a return loop, the electron beam is turned into X-rays by passing through undulators, which force the beam to oscillate to the
right and left of its mean path with horseshoe magnets of alternating
orientations. The pulsed X-rays are now ready for studies in multiple
stations at the facility.
While the ERL X-ray beam loses about 0.04 percent of its
energy during oscillation, 99.98 percent of its remaining energy is
recaptured into the electromagnetic fields when the electrons are re-injected
into the linac for deceleration--providing energy
to accelerate subsequent bunches of electrons.
Compared to a traditional storage-ring X-ray source, such as
CHESS, which recycles electrons billions of times but suffers from a
compromised beam size, ERLs send each bunch of
electrons through the undulators only once. Again
and again, ERLs recover and reuse energy that
accelerates electron bunches, while maintaining very small beam size--the key
to the brilliance needed to study intimate details at the nano-scale.
The superconducting microwave cavities, which are cooled to
-456 degrees Fahrenheit to produce hardly any heat during continuous
operation, are among the novel components that proved their worth during the
prototype-testing stage of the ERL project. Another component was the
photocathode gun that produces electrons--in extremely intense short-duration
bunches--for acceleration in the superconducting microwave cavities.
What Comes Next?
Development of ERL technologies, as well as prototype
production and testing, was made possible by about $18 million in support
from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and $12 million from New York State (for civil engineering
feasibility studies, plus technology and infrastructure development). Cornell University has invested some $10
million in the project, with additional investment planned. ERL
technology-development studies were conducted in conjunction with physicists
at Jefferson Laboratory (the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility)
in Newport News, Virginia.
Because ERL technology was developed with public money, it is
now available to any institution that hopes to build a next-generation X-ray
source--including Cornell
University, which will
propose assistance from federal and state sources.
Construction of an ERL X-ray facility--with national and
international availability to researchers in all fields of science and
engineering--is estimated to cost between $300 million to $400 million. Just
as an ERL recovers energy, building an ERL in Ithaca, New York, Cornell
officials observe, would save money by repurposing parts of CHESS and the
Wilson Synchrotron Laboratory that were built at Cornell with public
resources.
ERL for All
Cornell's Joel Brock wants an ERL, wherever it is built,
because his particular line of research needs better X-rays.
"I'm trying to understand the growth of thin films of
electronic materials, and it certainly would help to watch--in atomic
detail--as we form exotic new materials for advanced optoelectronic
applications," he says.
"But the beauty of ERL beams is that they can be used,
simultaneously, for every form of science, from archaeology to zoology. In
one station on the beam line on any given day you might have an environmental
scientist working next to an art historian and a biophysicist--from Minneapolis or Beijing or
Amsterdam.
ERL really can become a universal toolkit."
Source: US National Science
Foundation
| Emeritus
Professor Arjuna
Aluwihare conferred Honorary
Fellowship |
|
Vidya
Jothi Professor Arjuna
Aluwihare,
President of the National Academy of Sciences and former
Chairman of the University Grants Commission was admitted as an
Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Chemistry Ceylon at the
Third Convocation of the College of Chemical Sciences held on
February 9th 2007 at Hotel Taj
Samudra.
Granting
the first non-chemist this singular honour,
which is given to distinguished and eminent professionals,
the Council of the Institute recognized a very eminent surgeon,
a distinguished professional a noteworthy academic and a
non-conventional educationist who has made an immense and
magnificent contribution to medicine, education and
professionalism in Sri Lanka.
Delivering the Convocation Address, on the subject "Quality
in Chemistry - what does it mean?" Chief Guest Professor
Aluwihare complimented the Institute
for not being content by just being an Old Boy's Club but
setting up a teaching institution of quality which is a
prototype of what many other professions could emulate. He
requested the passing out Graduates and Diplomates to maintain
contact with the
College
of
Chemical Sciences,
their academic parent, and give credit and thanks to their
teachings by doing better than they did in all ways - hard work,
teaching, research, social consciousness etc. Work hard and
honestly, free of corruption using quality and excellence as
means of advancement of themselves, the discipline and the
profession of Chemistry.
Professor
Aluwihare went into the
past to bring out various aspects of quality which has to be
time and context related. Dealing with quality research,
Professor Aluwihare challenged the
audience to ask chemical and societal Questions and raised the
point that while a good research problem and good facilities go
together, the nature of the question to be solved is the more
important measure of quality. Such questions may need precision
thinking in formulation and providing answers but it is
interesting to realize that there are valid research questions
and methods that involve estimates of non quantifiable
(quantitative) variables as well and this kind of work deserves
the same respect as does everything that can be quantified very
precisely. |
‘Farmers denied access
to extension programmes’
by Suranga Gamage |
|
Bureaucracy
in agriculture offices has prevented many benefits of extension
programmes reaching farmers, Director, Audio Visual of the
Agriculture Department Dr. Rohan Wijekoon said.
Dr. Wijekoon said that the
Department had set up 48 digital extension units throughout the
country to assist Agriculture Research Officers and farmers.
They were provided with computers, digital cameras, scanners and
printers to impart knowledge on agriculture related matters.
These centres were provided
with 33 interactive multimedia CDs covering many crops providing
information about the crop through texts, graphics and embedded
video presentations.
However, in many places it was
found that farmers are not allowed to use computers and they
were reserved for the use of officials, Dr. Wijekoon said.
He said that in some places,
even research officers were denied access to the computers and
digital cameras which were confiscated by bosses who were
envious about their subordinates getting digital facilities not
available to them.
Dr. wijekoon said that the
Agriculture Department had set up all 48 centres only with local
funding of just Rs. 20 million.
He said that the Department
has already established an Agriculture Technology Park at
Gannoruwa and the second park will be opened at Hambantota.
The Island
24/02/07 |
|
Some Research
News Links
|
A notable 40th Science
Anniversary
by Nan |
|
"The National Science Foundation is the
longest serving premier state institution
for the promotion of science and tehnology
in Sri Lanka." So said the youthful
chairperson of the Foundation, Prof.
Sirimali Fernando, Head/ epartment of
Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine,
University of Sri Jayawardenepura, on 28
May, at the 40th anniversary commemorative
meeting in Maitland Place, Colombo 7. "The
NSF plays a unique role in supporting
science at all levels, for all ages; from
school children to trainee researchers and
senior scientists. It supports research and
development in universities, state research
institutions and in private industries. It
promotes all disciplines of science and
technology, from social sciences to
nanotechnology."
The Director, Dr. M. C. N. Jayasuriya,
pointed out in his address at the end of the
proceedings that the National Science
Foundation (NSF) is the apex scientific body
supporting research and that it needs must
be a catalyst to research and a gateway to
knowledge. Consolidating this last idea, the
new logo of the National Science Foundation
was presented digitally by YA TV that
earlier on depicted the progress made by the
institute in a power point presentation. The
new logo is a black rectangle with a black
door slightly ajar showing a deep orange
space within. It is dramatic.
History of the NSF
The beginning of NSF goes way beyond forty
years since the idea of a national body to
give leadership with regard to national
policy for the development of science in the
country was first voiced by the Ceylon
Association for the Advancement of Science
in 1948. Twenty years later, during Mrs.
Sirima Bandaranaike’s premiership, the idea
was taken up (1963), but it was again
another five years before the National
Science Council was established in 1968 when
Dudley Senanayake was Head of Government.
(Talk of snail’s pace!!)
Minister of Science and Technology, Tissa
Vitarana, in his address, almost
inadvertently gave a clue to the delay in
getting things done in Sri Lanka. While
congratulating the NSF on its uninterrupted
record of forty years of service to the
nation in the field of science and
technology (S&T), he made the observation
that S&T research and advancement lacked
funds. Even though Mahinda Chinthanaya
mentions very strongly the need for S&T
research and development and suggests an
allocation of 2% of GDP to it, the reality
is that only 0.013% is presently given this
field. He acknowledged the fact that S&T is
the basis for economic and social
development and plays a major role in the
areas of energy resources and food. Yet the
budgetary allocation itself is far below
that of India and even Bangladesh.
Prof. Sirimali Fernando too emphasized this
point. "It is interesting to note that more
or less at the same time as the NSC was
established in the 1960s," she said in her
welcome address, "two other countries that
were economically not better off than Sri
Lanka also focused on and invested in S&T
activities in their countries. Korea
initiated its activities through its first
economic development plan in 1962. Singapore
established the Ministry of Science and
Technology and the Singapore Science Council
in 1967 to promote the role of science. We
see the marked transformation in the
economies of South Korea and Singapore
today." (Sure everyone was haunted by a
vision of the now India, poverty
notwithstanding, burgeoning forwards, almost
on par with China, the future world leader.)
Came to mind how President John F Kennedy
galvanized the US and specially wrought vast
changes in secondary education when Russia
went ahead in the space race by launching a
man in orbit. Remembered while sitting and
listening to things being said about the NSF
and its successes, what Kennedy pronounced:
"Our progress as a nation can be no
swifter than our progress in education. The
human mind is our fundamental resource." And
"Let us explore the stars, conquer the
deserts, eradicate disease, tap the ocean
depths and… "Also with reference to the
determination he infected NASA with, to land
a man on the moon: "In a very real sense
it will not be one man going to the moon. It
will be our entire nation. For all of us put
him there." Words that definitely had, and
have an impact.
Success stories
To get back to the 40th anniversary of the
National Science Foundation, two
institutions preceded it. The National
Science Council, set up in 1968, was
reconstituted in 1977 as the Natural
Resources, Energy and Science Authority (NARESA)
"perhaps to provide it with more authority."
It was in 1976 that the Sri Lanka Scientific
and Technical Information Centre (SLSTIC)
was set up with the NSC library acting as
the node in the network created of around 70
S&T libraries island-wide. Funds were from
UNESCO. In its bid to right the imbalance of
knowledge richness between the northern
hemisphere of developed nations and the
Third World, each developing nation was
aided to institute a national centre for the
cooperative collection, sharing and
dissemination of S&T information through a
network of libraries.
The Science and Technology Development Act
in 1994 split the mandate of NARESA between
the National Science Foundation and the
National Science and Technology Commission (NASTEC).
As outlined by the Chairperson in her
address and graphically presented in the
power point presentation which followed, in
1970 the NSC commenced awarding research
grants and this continued with name changes
et al so that up until today 1860 grants to
the value of Rs 420 million have been
granted. The NSF has awarded over Rs. 320
million within the last three and a half
years. Research has been carried out in all
branch fields of S&T ranging from
agriculture, animal husbandry, energy
resources to many more areas, including the
social sciences. A team from the University
of Moratuwa, with funding from NSF,
developed a robot to detect mines
(explosive) and called it Murali. Can our
conjecture about the name be correct,
connecting it to our star cricketer?
The first National Science Policy was
formulated and presented to the Cabinet and
Head of State in 1978, and was accepted. The
Chairperson added that this was 30 years
after independence and 10 after the
establishment of the NSC.
The celebratory function
The morning function on the front lawn of
the National Science Foundation on Wednesday
28th was impressive, albeit charmingly
informal. The flowers arranged differently
and the innovative idea for the traditional
oil lamp – a circle of clay lamps on the rim
of a raised clay stand – were eye catching,
to say the least. The welcome address of the
Chairperson was followed by an address by
Prof Priyani E. Soysa, a former Director
General of NSF.
A felicitation ceremony was included in the
programme whereby former Director Generals
and Deputy DGs and their contribution to the
growing importance of NSC/NARESA/NSF were
acknowledged. It is necessary to list them
here: Dr. C. R. Panabokke, Mr Leslie
Wijesinghe, Mr. M. A. T. de Silva, Prof
Priyani E. Soysa (first woman DG), Prof
Kapila Dahanayake, Vidyajothi Prof Eric
Karunanayake, Mr. Mahen B. Watson, Prof.
Ranjan Ramasamy and Mrs Swarna Prelis. Mr M
K Ratnaweea, an employee counting 37 years
with the NSF and its predecessor
institutions, was also felicitated and
gifted a huge brass lamp. Remembered were
the late Dr. G. C. N. Jayasuriya. Secretary
General of the NSC, and the late Dr. R. P.
Jayewardene, brother of the then president
of the country. Another great man of the NSC,
Dr. R. O. B. Wijesekera was present with his
wife, Marina.
The achievements of NSF and its preceding
institutions during the forty years gone by
are listed in the very plush souvenir
compiled and edited by Dr. M. C. N.
Jayasuriya, Director, and printed and
published by the NSF. The commemorative
publication also carries many articles from
past NSF-ites, many of whom are scattered
all over the globe, probably having earned a
necessary plus in their CVs through their
service in this internationally recognized
institution.
In concluding her address, the Chairperson,
Prof. Sirimali Fernando, said: "At the NSF,
we are fully aware of the need for a radical
change in our mindsets. Appreciation of
development oriented research, promotion of
innovation and R&D in industries,
commercialization of research with a view to
socioeconomic development of Sri Lanka, the
need to create a conducive and enabling
environment for these to take place in our
country, creating adequate numbers of
researchers to be on par with the rest of
the world, need a clear focus on advanced
technologies. The need for local and global
visibility for our science and scientists is
on the top of our agenda for the next few
years. It is in line with this thinking that
the NSF, in 2006, proposed to the Hon.
Minister the need to prioritize and promote
infusion of nanotechnology to our local
industries." This point was further stressed
by the Minister himself – the need to bring
in nanotechnology more widely.
Nanotechnology, as I found out from
referring a dictionary, is technology on an
atomic and molecular scale. Further
elucidation: "Nanotechnology is the study,
design, creation, synthesis, manipulation
and application of functional materials,
devices and systems through control of
matter at the nanometer scale (1-100
nanometers, one nanometer being equal to 1 x
10-9 of a meter), that is at the atomic and
molecular levels and the exploitation of
novel phenomena and properties of matter at
the scale."
If you need more information on the NSF
please go there to 47/5 Maitland Place,
Colombo 7, or surf its website:
www:nsf.ac.lk
Everyone present congratulated the
Chairperson, Director and all NSF personnel
(easily more than sixty) and wished them
further success in the development of the
country. Have we got to wait till the war is
over to have more funds allocated to
institutions like the NSF to carry on the
very useful work they do?
Courtesy of The
Island 7 June 2008 |
World
Environmental
Education
Congress 2007 in
South Africa
Further information on this congress could
be obtained from Dr Rohan Wickremasinghe. He
could be contacted directly by e mail:
<
itescolombo@sltnet.lk>
Science and technology
expenditure to increase
By
Mohamed Asik - Harispattuwa.
We produce
efficient scientists but we are deprived of their services as many of them find
better opportunities abroad. There
are 263 Sri Lankans among 2400 scientists at
NASA said Science and Technology Minister, professor Tissa Vitharana.
Our country remains under
developed mainly due to the failure to be exposed to advanced, modern
technology. He made this statement at a ceremony held yesterday (27) at Harispattuwa to open the 189th Vidatha
Centre.
“Twenty nine percent of
children under the age of five in our country suffer from malnutrition. More
than one million persons are unemployed. Employment opportunities in the public
sector are diminishing day by day. One hundred and fifty out of 192 countries
in the world are faced with similar situations. These ‘Vidatha’
Centres are being opened throughout the country in a bid to fill in the gaps.
Speaking further professor Vitharana said they had so
far allocated only 0.14% of the gross national produce for the science and
technological sector expenditure and under Mahinda Chintanaya it is expected to increase it to 1%.
Central Provincial
Council Power and Highways Minister, Ediriweera Weerawardena, Adviser to the Science and Technology
ministry, G.G. Jayasinghe, Harispattuwa
Divisional Secretary A.B.W. Ariyawansa and many
others also spoke (190).
Daily Mirror 28/05/07
|
