N-E students bag most awards of World Habitat Day contests

MOST of the award winners of the World Habitat Day Art and Essay competitions organised by the National Housing Development Authority (NHDA) were from the North and East schools.

The World Habitat Day 2005 was commemorated on the theme 'Millennium Development Goals and the City' on October 3. The national school seminar was the main event and was held at the New Town Hall, Colombo.

More than 1,500 entries were received for this art and essay competitions in which more than 30 per cent were from North and East schools students.

Under the guidance of the Ministry of Housing and Construction Industry, Eastern Province Education and Irrigation Development, the NHDA implemented various housing projects, seminars and workshops during the Habitat Week from September 26 to October 3.

The National School seminar was conducted at the New Town Hall, Colombo on October 3 and nearly 1,000 students participated in this seminar representing schools from all parts of the country including the North and East.

Colombo Mayor Prasanna Gunawardena, Deputy Asad Sally, Secretary, Ministry of Housing and Construction Industry, Eastern Province Education and Irrigation Development Secretary Mallika Karunaratne and NHDA Chairman Parakrama Karunaratne were present.

National Water Supply and Drainage Board Director Sunil Sarath Perera delivered the keynote address on World Habitat Day, said, while the global attention is focused on millennium development goals, in Sri Lanka, the World Habitat Day programmes specially focused on the basic problems of poorest of the poor and low income shelter dwellers such as shanty development and pure drinking water.

"This seminar has given good opportunity to the students to focus their attention on the shelter field," he said.

An art exhibition was held at the same venue and prize winning entries were displayed at the exhibition.

In addition to the national school seminar, several settlement development programmes and maintenance activities of the condominium housing projects in Colombo were jointly implemented by the NHDA and Colombo Municipal Council in the City of Colombo.