Photo: Daily FT, 16 March 2017

Sri Lanka’s national daily business paper, the Daily FT (www.ft.lk) reported on 16 March 2017 that the University of Jaffna’s Engineering Faculty at Kilinochchi has selected ArcGIS for teaching GIS.

GIS Solutions collaborated with the University of Jaffna in conducting a workshop focused on introducing GIS into the government institutions of the Jaffna District.  A key resource person from GIS Solutions, Thillai Nadarajan  (with more than 25+ years’ experience in teaching on the ArcGIS Platform), took part in this WaSo-financed knowledge-sharing event.

Link to full news article

This workshop will be held as a 2-day training course at the University of Jaffna, 20-21 March 2017. Please send your application through your head of institution to: wasojaffna@gmail.com

REGISTRATION FORM and POSTER can be downloaded here. Registration deadline: 10 March 2017 (free of charge)

Venue: Department of Civil Engineering, University of Jaffna, Ariviyal Nagar, Kilinochchi

Training Program on Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) in Northern Province of Sri Lanka

There are emerging problems associated with water resources planning, development and management in the Northern Province of Sri Lanka with the accelerated development work after the end of conflict. This program was conducted from 18th to 22nd September 2015, at the training center of the Faculty of Agriculture, University Jaffna located in Kanagarayankulam.

Integrated water resources management is one of the approaches in order to address these complex issues. In this context, it is vital to impart new knowledge to those who are working in the water and associated sectors in the Northern Province. With this objective, a five day residential training program was jointly organized by the Faculty of Engineering and Faculty of Agriculture of University of Jaffna and Postgraduate Institute of Agriculture, University of Peradeniya. The training program was fully sponsored by the CapNet-Lanka and WaSo Project.

Resource persons were from Sri Lanka and abroad. Prof. Harsha Rathnaweera, Prof. Tore, Prof. Mafizur Rahman, Dr. Sivakumar and Dr Thushyanthi Mikunthan, delivered lectures from WaSo project side. Prof. Nimal Gunawardena, Prof. M.I.M. Mowjood, Dr S. Pathmarajah, Dr. Punyawardena, Dr Weragoda, Dr A. Karunarathna and Mr R.S. Wijesekera delivered lectures from CapNet side. Altogether there were 35 participants attending from various universities and industries. They have visited Iranamdu water supply scheme and Iranamdu RARDC farm as field visit during the workshop. Dr Thushyanthi Mikunthan, Dr. S. S. Sivakumar and Prof. Nimal Gunawardena were coordinators of the workshop.

Workshop on Water Conflicts Resolution, Treatment & Desalination

Department of Civil engineering, University of Jaffna organized a successful workshop on water conflicts resolution, treatment and desalination on 18th and 19th of April 2015 Workshop covered research areas of reverse osmosis, water treatment, conflict resolution, climate change and resilience of water bodies and few more related to water. This workshop was funded by the WaSo project.

They received more than 185 applications for the workshop from different people such as engineers, researchers and scientists from industry and academic field, university undergraduates and postgraduates in the fields of Engineering, Agriculture and Sciences. Out of them 75 participants were selected according to their qualifications. Majority participated was from University of Jaffna and University of Peradeniya. Following resource persons enlightened the event and Vice Chancellor of University of Jaffna was the chief guest of the inaugural session of the workshop.

• Prof. Harsha Rathnaweera, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Norway.
• Prof. Tore Sætersdal, Telemark University College, Norway.
• Prof S.B. Weerakoon, University of Peradeniya.
• Dr. A. Atputharajah, Acting Dean, Faculty of Engineering, University of Jaffna.
• Dr. S.S. Sivakumar, Head/Civil, University of Jaffna.
• Dr. S. Balakuamar, Dean/ Medicine, University of Jaffna.
• Dr. S.J. Arasakesari, Additional Director, Regional Agriculture Research and Development Center, Kilinochchi.
• Eng. D.S. Sampath, Lecturer/Civil, Faculty of Engineering, University of Jaffna

Participants visited Iranamadu water supply scheme and Iranamdu Agricultural research farm during the workshop as field visits. Workshop coordinated by Eng. Saliya Sampath, Lecturer/Civil, Faculty of Engineering, University of Jaffna. Miss. Janaki Kanagarajah, Mrs.Anusha Sivaneswaran and few other students work as organizing committee of the workshop.

WaSo Semi-Annual Meeting was held from 19th to 20th September 2015 at Tilko City Hotel, Jaffna. Professor Vasanthy Arasaratnam, Vice Chancellor of the University of Jaffna participated as the chief guest. Prof. Harsha Ratnaweera, Prof. Tore Sætersdal and Miss. Anne Gry represented the Norwegian partners. Two professors attended from Bangladesh and Cambodia. Prof. S.B. Weerakoon and five others attended from University of Peradeniya. Prof. G. Mikunthan, Dean/Graduate studies, Dr. A. Atputharajah, Dean/Engineering, Prof. Meena Senthilnanthanan, Professor from Department of Chemistry, Dr. (Ms) L. D. Rajasooriyar, Senior Lecturer Department of Geography, Eng. T. Thiruvarudchelvan attended the meeting. Dr. S.S. Sivakumar, Coordinator, WaSo Asia project of University of Jaffna, Eng. Saliya Sampath and Ms. J.C. Aravintharaj, project assistants, WaSo Asia project of the University of Jaffna organized the meeting. Eng. Saliya Sampath was the Coordinator / WaSo Asia Second Semi-annual Meeting.

It was one of the successful events organized by Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Jaffna through WaSo project. The progress and way forward of this project was discussed at the meeting.

Asia annual meeting (WaSo Asia) of the project Institutional Capacity Building in Water management and Climate Change adaptation in selected countries in Asia and Africa (Water & Society ) was held in Dhaka, Bangladesh During October 16-18^th, 2014. Prof Md. Mafizur Rahman, Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology (BUET) and coordinator of the project in BUET was the chief organizer of the meeting.

The meeting served as a gathering platform for project Partners from Institute of Technology of Cambodia (Prof. Norith PHOL), University of Peradeniya & University of Jaffna, Sri Lanka (Prof. S.B. Weerakoon & Prof. SrivaKumar) and The Norwegian University of Life Sciences(Prof. Harsha Chandima Ratnaweera, Kaia Bing); University of Bergen (Prof. Tore Sætersdal). A number of delegates from the various Government agencies, NGOs and International partners also attended the meeting as participant.

Invited delegates along with Prof. Md. Mafizur Rahman meet Vise Chancellor of Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology (BUET) as well as Dean of Civil Engineering Faculty. After that they visited different existing laboratory facilities in BUET.

On 17^th October Honorable Vice Chancellor of BUET attended the meeting with other faculty members of BUET and discussed various aspects as well as way forward. On 18^th October, 2014 the notable partners have discussed scopes and opportunities in WaSo-Asia implementation plan, Auditing facilities and further fellowship plan for all the partners in WaSo –Asia.