SRI LANKA: Children as early detectors, preventers of disaster

Reuters and AlertNet are not responsible for the content of this article or for any external internet sites. The views expressed are the author's alone. COLOMBO, 8 July 2008 - Residents of Ovilkanda, a remote village in Matale District, central Sri Lanka, often contend with a natural hazard, lightning, that strikes with great frequency and sometimes with deadly effect. So when the local school, the Ovilkanda Maha Vidyalaya, hosted a disaster mitigation programme conducted jointly by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the Disaster Management Centre (http://www.dmc.gov.lk/), the government agency handling disaster mitigation, the students were unanimous in their choice of which disaster prevention mechanism was most needed. "They wanted a lightning conductor fixed to the school building," Indika Ranaweera, the DMC's... [read full story]