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| Tuesday, 8 February 2005 |
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Please forward your letters to [email protected] in plain text format within the e-mail message, since as a policy we do not open any attachments. Rainwater harvesting for houses affected by Tsunami According to the Center for National operations (CNO) around 88,000 houses have been completely damaged by Tsunami. About 60,000 of these damaged houses are in the dry zone. Although details are not available, in addition to the 60,000 houses, a number of school buildings, hospitals and similar public buildings in the dry zone would also need reconstruction. Drought is of common occurrence in the Dry Zone. Sri Lanka experienced below the average rainfall in the recent years, and as a result many districts in the country had to face a water crisis. Hambantota district for example, was subjected to severe droughts for several years in the recent past. The average annual rainfall of this district is around 1000 mm. Even that is received only within 2-3 months of the year, and there is hardly any rain during the other months. In some parts of Sri Lanka, even the water that is available cannot be used for drinking purposes because it has a high fluoride content or a high salt content. Thus, water tends to be scarce in many areas of the country during many months of the year. Rainwater which comes free is a very pure forms of water. If collected and stored properly, it can be used for all domestic purposes including drinking. Rainwater harvesting also conserves energy as the energy input needed to operate a centralized water system is bypassed. Many rainwater harvesting systems require only a small pump to create water pressure in the household pipes. For centuries the world has relied upon rainwater harvesting to supply water for household, landscape, and agricultural uses. Before city water systems were developed, rainwater was collected (mostly from roofs) and stored in storage tanks. Today, many parts of the world, including Hawaii and the entire continent of Australia promote rainwater as the principal means of supplying household water. In Hong Kong, rainwater is collected from skyscrapers to supply water needs. Elsewhere, countries like India, Germany, Japan, Singapore and United States are also adopting rainwater harvesting. Hence, it would be desirable if those institutions involved in reconstructing Tsunami affected houses/buildings consider inclusion of an appropriate rain-water harvesting system. In fact, according to newspaper reports, the Minister of Urban Development and Water Supply Dinesh Gunawardena has emphasized the need to install rainwater harvesting systems in houses to be reconstructed, when he met the World Bank officials recently in Washington. It is easier and cheaper to incorporate a rain-water harvesting system at the stage of construction. The Technical details on rain-water harvesting systems could be obtained from the Rainwater Harvesting Forum located in Nugegoda. Telephone: (011) 5524612 Dr. C. S. WEERARATNA, Member, Rainwater Harvesting Forum, Nugegoda I am writing this piece of information to those who are really concerned about children's mental development. The largest ever study made to look into the effects of environmental tobacco smoke on children's health, reveals that exposure even at extremely low levels would decrease certain cognitive skills as well as reading mathematics, logic and reasoning in children and adolescents. The researcher of this study in Cincinnati, USA, Professor, Kimberly Yolton, says that they have observed children in the US who have got exposed to such consistent are being suffering adverse effects. The study findings show a three point decline in a standardized reading test, nearly a two point decline in a standardized mathematics test and 55 decline in block design scores at a modest increase in exposure. Though these declines may not be clinically meaningful for an individual child, they have huge implications for a society as millions of children are exposed to environmental tobacco smoke in the present day. Data for this study has been gathered from the National Centre for Health Statistics at the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. The researchers had measured levels of cotinine by using blood, urine, saliva and hair. Cotinine is a substance produced when nicotine is broken down by the body. This is considered as the best marker of environmental tobacco smoke exposure. MANJARI PEIRIS, Maharagama In the recent past there has been a sudden increase in mega building construction in the city of Colombo. Most of these condominium style constructions are carried out by a handful of persons, who show no concern to the residents living in the neighbourhood nor about the rules and regulations of the CMC. They acquire small pieces of land of 15-20 perches and construct the building on virtually the whole land area except the mandatory space at the rear of the building. All building materials such as steel etc. are stacked not only on the pavement but also on the road. Work goes on both during the day and night disturbing the residents. Large lorries go in and out of the construction site and the tyres of these vehicles bring mud and sand onto the road. The road sweeping vehicles of the cleaning contractors of the CMC come and take the sweepings off the road and in minutes they are back again due to the lorries. In countries such as Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore etc., the wheels of the lorries have to be washed of mud etc, before they come onto the public roads. Let us hope the CMC and Environment Authority officials bring these people to book. TILAK FERNANDO, Colombo 6 Politicians and escort vehicles The public have been observing the ugly scene when the leading escort vehicles of politicians break all the traffic rules and travel at very high speed. They just push aside all other traffic and fly on our streets and many a time involving in fatal accidents killing poor, innocent people. What a crime! Why? It is really irritating and annoying to observe these guards in the front escort vehicle, almost half the body out of the vehicle signalling with their white gloved hand, for oncoming vehicles to get off the way. Sometimes even the driver of the escort vehicle with one hand out signalling. This is sheer stupidity. Whom are they trying to impress?. Traffic light signals are not for them. Why? speed limits are not for them. Why? Road signs are not for them. Why? The scenario is different before the elections. The politico is down to earth and travel at snail's speed and most of the time even walking. What we do not understand is that the same person, once vote to Parliament by us, change completely. Why? do they have to change? Being security concessions is one thing but road rules are for all, immaterial of rank or position. If our politicians cannot respect other road users, and are deaf to road signals and rules on the highway, the solution is for them to use helicopters, where there is enough air apace to travel. The irony is the poor taxpayers will have to pay for their joy ride. After all, they have to set an example to others. The law enforcing authorities should act fast and stop this, unruly traffic movements of the escort vehicles in order to ensure that innocent lives of others are not snapped away. And so that other vehicle owners are able to peacefully use the roads, obeying all traffic rules. BRIG. NEVILLE FERNANDO (Rtd), Nawala I have an account with one of the State Banks. Recently they sent a circular to all account holders informing that the bank will be discontinuing the use of the present cheque books and will be issuing new image friendly cheques immediately. As I have already exhausted the cheque leaves in my cheque book, I immediately applied for a new cheque book. To my surprise I was informed by the Manager of the branch where I maintain my account that the new cheque books are not ready yet in spite of the circular they sent to the customers requesting to refrain from using no-image cheques from February 1, 2005. It is unimaginable to comprehend the actions of this State Bank which has all the state-of-the-art facilities in the banking field as well as highly paid employees, committing these types of clumsy mistakes. The Bank Manager informed me that he cannot issue any unused cheque books of the earlier type as they have got instructions not to do so. But as an alternative he suggested that he can issue 'crossed cheque book' of the earlier type which was printed 5 years ago which still has the year 19... printed on it. When I asked him how I can issue a cash cheque to any person, from this cheque book, he instructed me to endorse the cheque with the instruction Crossing cancelled. I think this is highly irregular and not in keeping with the normal banking practice and will lead to many errors and ultimately it is the hapless customer of the bank who will suffer due to the short sighted and unplanned policy of the highly placed officials of the bank. The bank owes and explanation to its customers. M. L. R. PERERA, Colombo 8 A member of the UNP had suggested that the Government should give Rs. 25,000 to each tsunami victim instead of the present Rs. 5,000 given by the Government. His contention is that there is enough foreign aid to go round in this manner. The UNP is criticising the Government on the grounds that aid is not directly falling on to the laps of the people. It is obviously not happy that the Government is launching new townships and building other infrastructure fearing that those would carry the label as to which Government was responsible for erecting those. This cannot be helped and further this is what they themselves would have done had they been in power. V. K. WIJERATNA, Panadura
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