Guidelines for housing development in coastal belt

THE National Housing Development Authority (NHDA) has compiled a comprehensive technical guideline for housing development in the coastal belt of Sri Lanka with secure methodologies resistant to natural disasters, Chairman of NHDA Parakrama Karunaratne said.

He was addressing a workshop in Colombo on June 20 with the participation of professionals/intellectuals of governmental and non governmental organisations.

The aim of the workshop was to initiate action to develop the guidelines based on housing development in the coastal belt of Sri Lanka, into a national guideline so as to successfully counter the impact on houses by national disasters.

The representatives of Ministry of Housing and Construction Industry, Eastern Province Education and Irrigation Development, Ministry of Urban Development and Water Supply, National Housing Development Authority, Ceylon Electricity Board, Sri Lanka Land Reclamation and Development Corporation, Buildings Department, Centre for Housing Planning and Building, University of Moratuwa and several other local and foreign non-governmental organisations participated at the workshop. The German Technical Co-operation (GTZ) is sponsoring the programme to develop the guidelines into a disaster reconstruction programme at national level.

Guidelines for housing development in the coastal belt of Sri Lanka is replete with details of background to coastal dwellings, novel construction methodologies identified for the coastal line, proposed physical planning, building materials to be utilised, basic services to be provided and the proposals for identifying lands for housing etc.

Additional Secretary of Ministry of Housing and construction Industry, Eastern Province Education and Irrigation Development S. R. Kanganayagam said, during the past Sri Lanka has experienced various national disasters, of different magnitudes. It is time that we study and evolve a national guideline based on past experiences.

It is important that all resource persons get together and pool their knowledge and expertise to make this a success."

Chairman Urban Development Authority (UDA) Gemuni Silva said "The preliminary tasks related post tsunami reconstruction were the responsibility of UDA, the NHDA and several other governmental institutions.

The guidelines prepared by the NHDA will be immensely helpful to all involved in reconstruction process.

Instead of several institutions preparing different guidelines based on their own concepts and polices it is important to arrive at a national guideline through dialogue among all related agencies," he said.

General Manager of NHDA Piyal Ganepola, said "The aim of this workshop is to improve the existing guidelines to be acceptable as national level so that international donors and organisations would be able to be active partners in our development process within an accepted policy framework." Consultant at GTZ Hilki Ebert, expressing her views said.

"The individuals and organisations who volunteer to help the victims of natural disasters should be properly guided in their missions so as to enable them to perform their activities in accordance with local conditions and administrative structures.

The proposed national guidelines will facilitate the INGOs and NGOs working in Sri Lanka to plan and implement their projects speedily with much convenience."

The workshop entertained a lengthy discussion on issues involved, and resolved to draft a national guideline within one month.