Technical Advisory Programme
By Eng Navodana Kankanamge
The Institution of Engineers, Sri Lanka (IESL) has immediately commenced a Technical Advisory Programme – “Challenge Ditwah”, a timely national initiative aimed at supporting communities affected by floods and adverse weather conditions due to Ditwah Cyclone.
The programme was initially conceived to assist IESL members facing urgent challenges arising from floods. Subsequently, it was expanded to a broader and more impactful level, with the objective of providing free-of-charge engineering advisory services across all engineering disciplines under IESL.
To ensure effective delivery, a central coordination mechanism was established by IESL. Advisory requests are assessed based on engineering discipline, such as electrical, civil, or building services, and are then referred to the relevant IESL sectional committees. Through this structured approach, hundreds of requests have been received and successfully addressed.
The Electrical Engineering Sectional Committee assumed a leadership role by developing the tool to manage the large volume of inquiries, recruiting volunteer engineers from IESL membership, and rerouting both inquiries and volunteers to the relevant Sectional Committees to undertake the advisory services. Through this central mechanism, professionals contributed their expertise effectively, enabling efficient, well-coordinated advisory services nationwide. To date, hundreds of inquiries have been accommodated in an advisory capacity.
IESL has officially informed the relevant Government authorities that, should any engineering advisory support or technical assistance be required, such needs may be guided through IESL, and the Institution’s membership will contribute their expertise in an advisory capacity. In parallel, responding to a request from the Department of Irrigation, IESL, with the support of the Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering Sectional Committee, developed and launched “FloodSense”, a web-based flood level data capture portal. The platform is now fully operational and supports real-time flood data collection across the country, strengthening the flood monitoring and response efforts of the Department of Irrigation through the FloodSense portal; https://floodsense.iesl.lk/.
Further expanding the scope of the Technical Advisory Programme, IESL has also initiated plans to address post-disaster housing needs. A proposal has been developed to design temporary housing solutions that can be rapidly assembled and dismantled. This initiative will be launched by the Civil Engineering Sectional Committee together with the assistance of the Electrical Engineering Sectional Committee as a global design advisory and competition, inviting innovative design submissions from IESL members and engineers worldwide.
Through these initiatives, IESL reaffirms its commitment in serving the nation by harnessing engineering expertise for disaster response, resilience, and sustainable recovery.
Eng. Navodana Kankanamge is a Chartered Electrical Engineer and IESL Council Member with a decade-long track record in national transmission projects and represented various working groups in PUCSL, SLSI, ECSL, etc. A transformative leader, he has modernized forums like the JIY, YMS, and Entrepreneurship Forum to foster innovation and entrepreneurship. Beyond his technical expertise, he is a prominent industrial supervisor for undergraduate/postgraduate researches, and he leads for social responsibility projects, dedicated to elevating engineering standards and community welfare in Sri Lanka