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| Tuesday, 25 January 2005 |
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Tasks for Engineers stand out Several professional organisations are already in the disaster area doing their humane duties in the relief and initial rehabilitation work in this unprecedented national catastrophe. The angry ocean has destroyed all the material achievements of the past decades and may be even centuries. The major part of the damage is to engineering based infrastructure facilities - buildings, roads and rails, bridges, harbours, transport vehicles, ocean going vessels, power and communication systems, water supplies etc. Though the problems are engineering based, our engineers are still to make their independent impact in the present scene. Hearts and guts Many of the professionals having a heart are already doing emergency work voluntarily. No doubt they are having their own occupational duties in their normal work stations, but both duties are somehow being adequately looks after under the crisis up to the relevant government departments and other organisations. However there are no doubt these good things happen through proper leadership. First the leaders should have a heart in crisis of this nature and the boldness to fight their way through and to motivate others. In some recent press articles on studies made on the relative strength of subordinate engineering services and the professionally qualified engineers, they had reported excessive numbers of the latter, well above the accepted proportion. Thus engineers are under- employed and under utilised in Sri Lanka and obviously there is an excess that can be better utilised under the present crisis. Engineering based Government departments and organisations are no doubts, now busy working to meet the emergency, its effectiveness and productivity depending on both the dedication and patriotism of the superiors. Motivation and raising the devotion of their staff are key responsibilities of the management. Their leadership can blossom the dedication quality in the ranks or kill it. The country's present calamity can show this up. Engineers to the fore There is no need to emphasise that at this juncture all professionals of all disciplines should patriotically rise to the occasion. In this disaster, however, the tasks for the engineers stands out significantly, not only for functions in the field but also in planning the tasks and guiding the political authorities and the bureaucracy. Several co-ordinating and tasking bodies have been set up by the government. All these require engineering contribution and guidance. Where it is missing the engineering professionals should intervene and fill the gap. Invariably and understandably political interests will apply pressure for overnight restoration of the destroyed infra-structure facilities. Here there is the danger of substandard work resulting due to this pressurising from the lay sector. In this ambiguous situation authoritative advice from independent experienced engineers from the professional bodies (NGOs) will be essential and urgent. In the field too there is a scope for competent engineers from unaffected areas and the less busy sections in the metropolis etc., to contribute their right effort to ensure that the rehabilitation and reconstruction proceeds methodically and to ensure that the material and financial resources, apparently pouring in for infrastructure re-establishment, are correctly employed to, not only get the maximum benefits, but also for maximum functional life. Of course the professional bodies in the engineering sector should move very objectively and seek their place in the different disaster committees and contribute to the reconstruction planning etc. A calamitous state in the nation is not an appropriate time to demonstrate any self-importance. Government backing essential For individual engineers or organised bodies or professional institutions, a considerable snag is the difficulty in facilitating potential volunteers from the public sector to meet their patriotic obligations in this national emergency away from their normal working station. The Government should give them proper encouragement backing. The Cabinet could approve duty leave to professionals volunteering for re-construction work away from their normal work places. In fact if to properly achieve the massive reconstruction targets, an administrative strategy to get the best out of the local engineers should be mooted and implement the powers of under the Public Service Commission and other lawful agencies. The declaration of a State of Emergency and implementing selected provisions under it can go a long way in meeting the present recovery challenges. Since the last general election the political authorities have been pinpointing on the local professionals to accelerate the raising of the country's economic standard, considered a challenge to them, the engineering related investment being the major strategy. Now an unprecedented catastrophe has overwhelmingly added to the challenges. Political leaders mainly have been referring to this crisis as a blessings in disguise - a crisis to generate determination in every citizen's heart and head an undefeatable urge to make effort until a higher resurgence from the ashes is realised. To achieve this, besides financial and material resources, which even the world community is helping with, we mainly need patriotic technical personnel and dedicated human effort on a massive scale - as aforesaid Engineers to the Fore. The estimated thousand engineering graduates annually coming out of the local universities will not be an under-employed or unemployed burden, but a productive asset if the professional institutions do their job right with practical imagination and objectiveness. Engineering trade unions Many engineering trade unions, which are more dynamic than the average professional institutions, have a big part to play in the present tragic scene. If their persuasive and organisational capabilities are put together under a co-ordinating umbrella, perhaps there would not be a comparable force to rise to an occasion during a national crisis. This unparalleled national disaster is a solid opportunity for the multi-disciplinary engineer's trade unions to join hands and unleash their constructive potential to ride over the present nature's blow and achieve the country's rising from the ashes as Hiroshima did after the World War II, as many political leaders hope for. Aid management responsibility The pathetic story of utilisation of loans granted by the World Bank etc. is well-known. These were mainly for engineering related planned projects. The instant aid flowing-in in this crisis is not that planned or programmed. As the great need for funds is for engineering related infrastructure re-construction and development, spacing out these aids and donations and their efficient utilisation is a sacred responsibility of our engineers assisted by the bureaucracy. Political authorities should be helpful but not diversional. It is hoped that the local engineers will shed their lethargic attitudes and take their responsibilities boldly and see to while preventing wastage and misuse of the resources the destroyed engineering related infrastructure and other facilities are systematically re-built leading the country's economic recovery to be more speeded up even though this unfortunate catastrophe that visited us on the last full moon day. - M.S. |
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