National Data Centre soon
A National Data Centre (NDC) will be launched soon under
the purview of the President.
The precursor for this state-of-the art centralised data
management system was the extensive database of the Centre for National
Operations (CNO) which wound up its operations four weeks after the
tsunami disaster.
The NDC will contain up-to-the-minute data and
statistics on the country and its people, which will be especially
helpful in the case of a disaster. The CNO initiated special project on
data collection Infrastructure report has ben handed over to the
Secretary to the President.
The CNO has also initiated the establishment of a DNA
fingerprinting centre within the Institute of Molecular Biology,
University of Colombo, which is another first for the country.
A spokesman for the CNO said its website
www.cnosrilanka.org will be hosted for at least two more weeks. The data
will continue to be available. All relevant documents have been handed
over to the tsunami related authorities which have absorbed the tsunami
related activities carried out by the CNO.
The CNO website was a trailblazer which received hits
from all over the world for the latest information on tsunami-battered
Sri Lanka. The site was updated twice a day and the digitised maps help
donors and well wishers to easily identify the areas needing help.
The CNO was established on December 29, 2004, just three
days after the disaster. It fulfiled he void of a think-tank which would
be capable of strategic planning and overall monitoring of the Tsunami
Disaster Management of the Government until the State machinery had
increased its capacity to meet this unexpected challenge.
The key strength of the CNO was the highly committed
staff of nearly 120 working around the clock. |
