Sri Lanka to purchase radar to evaluate cloud formation for artificial rain project
A minister of the Sri Lankan government has reportedly stated that the country would spend Rs. 2 billion on a radar to evaluate cloud formation for the artificial rain project.
“We currently do not have a radar which can find out accurately how clouds are forming,” Sri Lanka’s Primary Industries and Social Empowerment Minister Daya Gamage has been quoted as saying.
“If we spend Rs. 2 billion, we can get the radar,” he has told the media.
“I hope to procure the equipment through my ministry, and then we can get rain,” he has further noted.
Sri Lanka had begun an artificial rain project under the state owned, Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) in March 2019 but it was immediately halted after the initial experiment ended in failure, the local media has reported.
Reports further state that the experiment, using Thai technology, had attempted to seed clouds with chemicals to create artificial rain, using an aircraft.
According to Gamage, his ministry officials had visited China recently to evaluate another type of technology, where the chemicals are delivered from a rocket launched from the ground. China has also been experimenting with drones to deliver seeding agents to clouds.
Studies conducted by the World Bank (WB) and Asian Development Bank (ADB) have shown that Sri Lanka is prone to extreme weather events such as droughts and floods, with the frequency set to increase due to climate change.
OSL take:
The government of Sri Lanka is in the process of upgrading/uplifting all sectors in the country. The country is also undergoing an aggressive development programme covering the entire country. All this has resulted in an expansion of business/investment opportunities in Sri Lanka.
| Article Code : | VBS/AT/09082019/Z_1 |