The 5th Plenary Meeting of the Platform on Water Resilience and Disasters in Sri Lanka was held on March 15, 2024, at Hotel Janaki in Colombo, Sri Lanka. More than 45 experts attended the conference, including four ICHARM researchers, Executive Director KOIKE Toshio, Senior Researchers Abdul Wahid Mohamed Rasmy and MIYAMOTO Mamoru, and Research Specialist TAMAKAWA Katsunori, and Associate Professor YASUKAWA Masaki of the University of Tokyo. Sri Lankan experts were from various domestic water-related agencies, such as the Irrigation Department, the National Building Research Institute (NBRO), the Disaster Management Center (DMC), the Department of Meteorology (DOM), the Mahaweli Administration Department, and the Sri Lanka Land Development Corporation (SLLDC). The first meeting was held on August 24, 2017, the second on March 28, 2018, the third on February 20, 2019, and the fourth on February 13, 2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic, and the fifth meeting took place in person for the first time in four years.
The session began with a welcome address by Eng. A. Gunasekara, the director general of the Irrigation Department, followed by the opening remarks of Executive Director KOIKE Toshio, who presented global and regional activities related to the International Flood Initiative (IFI). Senior Researcher Rasmy reported the activities related to the platform in Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan experts also spoke about updates on their activities; the speakers included Director Sugeeshwara Seenipellage of the Irrigation Department, Mr. Dayan Munasinghe of NBRO, Ms. Nadeeka of DOM, Ms. Anoja Senevirathna Senevirathna of DMC, Eng. Imesh Kariyawasam of the Mahaweli Administration, and Eng. Thushari of SLLRDC.
In the session of activity reports from the ICHARM side, Mr. Sandrasegaram Nerojan, Ms. Thilini Kaushalya, and Mr. Charya Jayathilaka presented their research work done at ICHARM. Associate Professor YASUKAWA gave an overview of the flood forecasting and early warning system for the Karu River in Sri Lanka. ICHARM researchers also delivered presentations: Senior Researcher MIYAMOTO on IFI's inter-regional cooperation activities, including the training of facilitators, and Research Specialist TAMAKAWA on an overview of the content of the training tutorial.
Based on the reports from both sides, all participants discussed the facilitator training and decided that it would be conducted in two phases. They also agreed that Phase I would focus on flood forecasting and early warning systems and also contingency planning and risk mapping based on flood monitoring and forecasting information in the Kalu river basin. Phase II would focus on climate change, including understanding of the mechanism, impact assessment, economic assessment, and adaptation planning for the Mahaweli River and other river basins.
At the end of the meeting, Dr. Asiri Karunawardena, the director general of NBRO, gave closing remarks and expressed his gratitude for the active discussion and the success of the 5th meeting.
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