Prof. Charitha Pattiaratchi, a professor in coastal oceanography at the Oceans Graduate School in University of Western Australia (UWA), visited the NSF on 04th October 2023 and held discussion with Prof. Ranjith Senaratne, Chairman of the NSF with a view to holding a national conference to commemorate the 20th Anniversary of the Asian Tsunami 2004.
The 26th of December 2024 marks the 20th anniversary of the Indian Ocean Tsunami,which caused an inestimable damage to life, limb and property of peolpe in Sri Lanka. The whole world is getting ready to mark the 20th anniversary of the Asian Tsunami 2004 in December, 2024 and the NSF would join forces with Prof Charitha Pattiaratchi, an internationally renowned scientist in Oceanography and Winthrop Professor of Coastal Ocean, School of Civil Environmental and Marine Engineering and the Ocean Institute at the University of Western Australia and Prof. Dilanthi Amartunga, Director of the Global Diaster Resilience Centre (GDRC) at the University of Huddersfield, UK to organize a conference in December, 2024.
This conference will provide a platform for the planners, policy makers, scientists, technologists and acadenics to report progress made thus s far to improve adaptability and resileince to such disasters and identify gap that need to be addressed in the futute. In this connection, the NSF will work in concert with the relevant key institutions including the Disaster Management Centre, Meteorological Department, National Building Research Organization and universities, A pre-annoucement in this regard has already been made and an annoucement with the requiste details will be issued shortly.
In addition, it was decided to intitiate a novel programme to alleviate the misplaced fear among the people for the ocean by creating awareness, particualrly among school children on the importance and potential benefits of the ocean with the support of Prof. Pattiaratchi. This programme will be developed jointly with the Science Communication and Outreach Division of the NSF.