EDITORIAL

Welcoming 2022

Dear Members & Readers,

We are at the dawn of the new year 2022. This is the period of the year that we look back and reflect on the events of the past fifty-two weeks to make some resolutions for the coming year. Year 2021 has been a year with many challenges in front of us as individuals, as a community and as a nation. The full year was under the Covid-19 pandemic which made the lives of us on ‘New Normal’ mode with a lot of obstacles to the traditional way of doing things. However, the positive transformation that took place around and within us has made some impossible things possible.

In the meantime, the country has faced several natural and created issues that challenged the long-term wellbeing and sustainability of the nation. One of the recent examples is the unwanted rush towards organic agriculture that pushed the entire community into deep trouble. The move towards organic agriculture that would have been welcomed by all who dream on a healthy & wealthy nation has created utter chaos in the country due to the way of its implementation without a well thought out strategic plan. A good concept that should essentially be executed on a step-by-step approach was ruined by the short-sighted political mindsets. Pushing something without having a continuous dialogue with different stakeholders will not work. The lack of participation of the engineering community who possess expertise in the field of agricultural engineering and related fields in these dialogues is also noted.

Some recent positive contributions of the engineering community during the year on national level issues are also to be appreciated. The LPG fiasco that terrified and still terrifying the society is one of those issues that the IESL engineers contributed proactively. The joint effort by the Mechanical Engineering Sectional Committee and the Chemical & Process Engineering Sectional Committee is well accepted by the Presidential Committee appointed to investigate the recent LPG related explosions and fires. The Chairman of the presidential committee in a thanking note to the IESL President has mentioned that the IESL’s submission is attached in full in their report to His Excellency the President. IESL should actively engage in this kind of national level issues where the contribution of the engineering community is heavily expected and required.

What I highlighted above are only two of the many national issues that the contribution of the engineering fraternity came in different levels during the year 2021. We are aware that the term ‘engineer’ is derived from the Latin word ‘ingenerare’ and its meaning is ‘one who creates’. Engineers should be creators and solution providers. When there is an issue that affects the nation at large while, at the same time, that requires technical competencies to get it solved, engineers should proactively contribute to those. This is one of the prime national duties on our hands. Let us start the year 2022 in that spirit.

Wish you all a very happy new year 2022 that brings you health, wealth, and peace!

Eng. Suran Fernando
Editor, SLEN
suran.fernando@gmail.com
editor.slen@iesl.lk