Striking back: lightning in the developing world
Scientists are battling to stop damage and death caused by lightning
strikes in the developing world, reports Anuradha Alahakoon.
LIGHTNING: In July this year, dark clouds and lightning stained the
sky above Ushari Dara, a remote mountain village in northwestern
Pakistan. After the storm had blown over, police reported that lightning
had destroyed a dozen houses and killed up to 30 people.
In 1988, residents of Cibinong in West Java, Indonesia, reported
lightning strikes on 322 days of that year; lightning had struck each
square kilometre of land as many as 12 times.
And in Bangladesh, the metal roofing of shanties that provide shelter
for the urban poor is an easy target for lightning. In 2003, 133 people
died and 137 were injured after their homes were struck.
Despite these accounts, the dangers of lightning are not taken
sufficiently seriously, say lightning scientists.
Alarmed by the general lack of safety precautions in the developing
world, some 30 experts met in Colombo, Sri Lanka in May this year to
discuss how their countries could better protect themselves against
future strikes.
The purpose of the forum was to raise awareness of lightning and
lightning protection standards and, most importantly, to agree to exert
pressure as a group on Governments in developing countries to take
lightning protection seriously.
“All the scientists are very much concerned about pressuring
policy-makers in their countries to adapt relevant standards of
lightning protection and educate the public,” says University of Colombo
lightning expert Chandima Gomes, currently lightning-protection advisor
to the National Lightning Safety Institution based in the United States.
Making people aware
One of the biggest problems confronting lightning-protection
scientists is the lack of awareness about the dangers of lightning.
For example, in Sri Lanka, where lightning kills around 50 people
every year and damages US$ 2.5 million worth of property, people in
neighbourhoods where deaths and injuries that have occurred from
lightning still do not take precautions in subsequent lightning storms,
a research team from the University of Colombo has found.
But there are some initiatives in progress to raise awareness.
In Bangladesh, where literacy levels are only 30 per cent and
therefore disseminating information on lightning safety is difficult, a
project to increase awareness in rural villages - where deaths from
lightning are frequent - has met with success.
Strengthening standards
A team of local experts, headed by Munir Ahmed from the
nongovernmental organisation Technological Assistance for Rural
Advancement, began a project in 2004 by using street dramas and folk
songs to teach people how to protect themselves against lightning.
Follow-up by the Lightning Awareness Centre in Bangladesh found that
understanding about lightning protection had improved in those
communities.
According to Gomes, lightning awareness centres, which act as a
meeting place for scientists and the community, are also a good
solution.
At present there are about eight such centres operating in Asian
countries, including in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan and
Sri Lanka. The scientists hope to build more such centres across the
developing world.
Beyond lack of awareness, one of the principal problems the
scientists identified at the forum is that many developing countries
lack standards when it comes to producing, testing and installing
lightning-protection devices such as lightning rods.
In Malaysia, many tall buildings are marked by lightning strikes,
says Hartono Zainal from Lighting Research, a consulting body in
Malaysia.
Coming up with solutions
This is because some of the equipment used and marketed in Malaysia
do not adhere to international standards, he says. So even though a
considerable number of buildings have lightning-protection devices
installed, many are not out of the danger zone.
The basic principle behind lightning-protection devices is that they
provide a safe pathway - from the terminal above the building, through
the conductor to the rod in the ground - for the lightning to earth,
without destroying the structure or object it strikes.
Standards specify the size and materials that can be safely used for
lightning-protection devices, how and where they should be installed on
buildings, and how they should be tested.
One of the biggest problems is in the positioning of the
lightning-protection rod, Zainal says. If it is not positioned
correctly, it doesn’t shield the building from lightning effectively.
“I found that 90 per cent of lightning strikes are at the corners of
buildings. In most places when damage has occurred, the placement of the
rod was wrong,” says Zainal.
One of the main goals for the scientists at the forum in Colombo was
to find a way to reduce the number of deaths and the extent of injury
from lightning.
Mladjen Curic, from the University of Belgrade in Serbia, believes
that science may be able to provide part of the solution. Anti-hail
rockets, which fire silver iodide into thunderclouds to suppress hail
and protect agricultural crops, can also reduce lightning, he says.
The silver iodide seeded in the thunderclouds produce an excess of
ice crystals, which cause the clouds to discharge their electrical
potential, thereby reducing the likelihood of the lightning reaching the
ground.
Curic’s analysis showed that the rockets also reduced lightning by 50
per cent, providing protection over a large area for an extended period
of time.
He believes that this type of protection is much more effective than
individual protection of objects.
Although his research is encouraging, a more immediate solution may
lie in pressuring governments in developing countries to pay more
attention to lightning protection. The scientists at the Colombo forum
hope this will come about through a policy document called the Colombo
Declaration.
The Declaration is a set of guidelines and recommendations -
developed and signed by the forum scientists - for governments to ensure
that people have proper protection from lightning.
The document recommends increasing awareness among the public,
enhancing technical skills among professionals, better protection of
buildings, developing national standards and promoting local manufacture
of lightning-protection devices with the help of financial grants and
training.
One of the recommendations in the declaration is to build an
international network for lobbying Governments about lightning
standards, particularly in African countries, where much work needs to
be done.
“This kind of a policy document, which we can use to force
policy-makers to adapt standards, is very important, and it will make
positive impacts in many countries if rightly adapted,” says Orabile
Nanabu of the Botswana Technology Centre, representing Africa as a
whole.
Sri Lanka has been nominated to house a planned international
institute of lightning protection and safety.
The country has the oldest lightning-research group - over 35 years
old - in the developing world, based at the University of Colombo. Sri
Lankan scientists pioneered the promotion of lightning awareness in the
region and have close ties with the National Lightning Safety Institute
in the United States.
“An international centre of excellence, where you have the technology
and where any interested person can use the facilities at affordable
cost will be good initiative to develop the field in future. This centre
can host laboratories to test the lightning-protection devices cost
effectively,” says Chandima Gomes.
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