Seven staff members departed. The departure of Ashara Nijamdeen after five years to pursue her Masters in Tropical Agriculture at the University of Bonn was significant.  Zeeba Javad too left after 1.5 years to pursue educational and personal goals.

Internship opportunities were provided for eleven undergraduates during this period – Statistician Charuni Kulasinghe, Data Digitizer Narmadha Hewage, Environmental Scientist Gobishankar Sathyamohan, Computer Scientist Varunya Amamini, Management Aide Emmanuel Gautham, Physicist Tharushi Ekanayake, Computing and Management interns Isura Disanayake, Sarasi Pamunuwa, and Dilushi Doranegama, English Educator Sammani Gunasekara and Law student Deepthi Gunawadhana. Most of them were from Peradeniya, with folks from Rajarata, Sri Jayawardhenepura and the Mahaweli College of Education in Polgolla.

Rimza Zacky, Tuan Hadgie, Fathima Shakira, Kokila Wickramasinghe, Nipuni Alahakoon, Zain Iwais, Azra Munas and Ushan Adithya carried on from last year.

Sabra Ansar, Hasmiya Jabarooth, Piushani Ellegala, Madhura Weerasekera, Sewwandhi Chandrasekera, contributed to work.

We worked from home from January-February & May – July periods due to the COVID risks.  Our past work on the Internet-Cloud such as filing systems, library catalogues, internal blogs, Trello boards and wiki pages had to be brought up to adequate standards. Digital archiving has been improved for some areas of our 8-10 Themes and four Projects.  File Archiving, Disaster Risk Management with respect to IT remains to be addressed.

Dengue Risk in the Central Province

PEER Cycle 7: Full title:  Developing Dengue Risk Predictions from Environmental, Entomological, and Societal Information to aid public health management in Sri Lanka. Three Quarterly Reports were submitted in April, July & September 2021.  And also, Annual Reporting (Oct 2020 – Sep 2021) in October 2021.

Promoting Literacy on Climate Change, and Renewable Energy Transition   

At the request of the British High Commission through Dr. Vidhura Ralapanawe, a project on Promoting Literacy on Climate, Climate Change, its Impacts and Mitigation through Awareness of Potential Transition to High Renewable Energy in Sri Lanka was undertaken between January and August in 2021. Infographics, Flyers, Posters and Videos were produced and distributed via social media.

Influencer Training

Again at Dr. Vidhura Ralapanawe’s urging, a training program to develop Digital Media skills of 10 of our staffers was undertaken by Influencer Team, AK Tharindu and Lividul Witharna for three months. Through this project, guidance was provided to initiate a new website – fect.lk – and new alumni and friends’ groups on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook while maintaining a regular calendar of postings.

Automatic Weather Stations – (AWS)

We have established 12 Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) in operation island-wide in collaboration with Ambient Weather to obtain and install online air quality data to our web-portals. Further, two weather stations have been established in Maathoda – SIRC and Thinadhoo in Maldives which are in offline currently due to maintenance and network failures. New stations were established in Gammaduwa in Northern Knuckles Foothills in Matale while major relocation and repairs were undertaken in Colombo (Bayleaf), Kandy (Trinity College) and Kurunegala (Health Office).

Air Quality

FECT has placed a dozen online air quality instruments from Purple Air and Air Visual and a score of Automatic Weather Stations, over several selected regions in Sri Lanka and Maldives. These instruments were maintained and data acquired, assimilated and quality checks undertaken. A weekly update of the data, obtained through the Air Quality Instruments for our web portals (www.cleanair.lk, www.disaster.lk, www.fect.lk  www.climate.lk and  social media of FECT. ICTA recognized the merit of this work last year with an award for Digital Social Innovation.

Soil Moisture

FECT has established Soil Moisture Instruments in the Airport Island in Maldives which is in operations recently and Akurana Sri Lanka, which is out of operations.

River Water Level

In Akurana, Sri Lanka, we have installed and are testing an instrument fabricated by our staffer to obtain data on River Water Level. The data for Akurana in Pinga Oya is already online but there are teething problems.

Table: Instrument Sites

Xpress Pearl Report to the Ministry of Justice and MEPA

We submitted a report on X-Press Peral Marine Disaster, exploiting the data that we obtained through our air quality instruments to the Minister of Justice and the Marine Environment Protection Authority. There was obviously pollution, it was directed towards land, but apart from some spikes not sustained.

Dengue

We investigated the impacts of Dengue epidemics of 2017 and 2019 which was mainly focused on Matale area. Two research papers were drafted on Dengue Cases and Epidemiology and Entomology for Matale.

Air Quality

We conducted an analysis of Air Quality data in collaboration with Central Environment Authority (CEA). Theeirair quality data was compared with what wewe obtained through our instruments. There is some consistencies and interesting divergences.

Climate Services

FECT has been working with the hydrological and meteorological agencies and water resources and environmental sectors to develop the climatological information, customized monitoring systems that collect satellite and local data, and to develop fine-scale prediction systems in Sri Lanka and Maldives. Based on this, we have been providing a Weekly Climate Bulletin for Sri Lanka since 2008 and a monthly bulletin for the Maldives since 2011. These advisories provide a compilation of climate characteristics and promote better understanding of weather, intra-seasonal to seasonal variability of rainfall. 52 Issues went out for Sri Lanka and 12 Issues for Maldives. The reach was extended after the staff social media training.

NAMSAT

We participated in the conference conducted by Center for Science and Technology of the Non – Aligned Movement and other developing countries (NAM S&T Center in New Delhi). Our submission on “Risks of COVID infected burials” were accepted after sending through National Science and Technology Commission (NASTEC). Ashara Nijamdeen presented it virtually at the Conference held in early 2021. There was another interesting presentation on home gardens from a NERD Centre staffer who has promised to help us.

SLAAS

FECT contributed to the conference organized by Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science (SLAAS). Six abstracts were presented in sections concerned with Health, Environment, Engineering, Physics and IT. Two of our Abstracts were rejected by the Chemistry section – although one was submitted in duplicate by error – to the Health section and accepted there.  Lareef Zubair helped the Social Science section. helped with reviewing abstracts. Lareef Zubair concluded his service on the Section F committee after last years term.

AGU

We took part in the conferences organized by American Geophysical Union (AGU) in New Orleans USA.  All the Abstracts presented by FECT were accepted and presented in the Atmospheric Sciences, Geo-health and Global Environmental Change divisions.

CCA – RFI and RFP

USAID had a very large call on Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) in  Sri Lanka and Maldives. CCA program utilized three groups of interventions science, scientific uptake and priority adaptation solutions. FECT submitted in collaboration with Columbia University Earth Institute (CUEI) and Sarvodaya as main partners in submitted in March 2021. There were some content missing in the docket submitted from Columbia University. Still of the 9 submissions the CU proposal was shortlisted – they usually shortlist 3. Eventually the award was made to a DC company called Tetratech. Nihani Riza of USAID is in charge of administering this project and Lareef Zubair met with her in October and some follow up is pending with the Tetratech team. They are trying to spin up and shall be in the domain for the next 5 years.

Empowering Sri Lanka’s from COP26

FECT proposed a project with the objective of Empowering Sri Lanka’s Contributions, Ambitions and Gains from COP26 at the request of the British High Commission in Colombo. The project was focused on helping and addressing some of the bottlenecks that have held back the participation of civil society, regional organizations, and civil society.  There was no follow up. But the proposal has left us with a plan.

Communication and Literacy on Climate Change

Sri Lankans were facing challenges due to hazardous impacts caused by the climate changes, environmental degradation and related adverse development. FECT proposed actions to mitigate the issues related to climate related queries and support advocacy by civil society, women’s groups and youth through generating climate related information.

COVID Impacts on Education and Fisheries in the MV

Maldives: We proposed characterization of impacts of COVID-19 on School and University Education and on Fisheries Operations, and propose steps to mitigate these adverse impacts widely in the Maldives with a case study in the Gaafu Dhaalu Atoll. FECT proposed to contribute to the work of Maldives National University to develop the baseline information of Health, Environment, Education and Fisheries and upgrade STEM Education.

Communication & Literacy on Climate Change in MV

FECT-MV submitted a proposal to facilitate protection, awareness and assistance for the individuals who faced challenges by Sea level rise, heat stress, sea surface warming and polluted marine biology through providing climate related information.

Strategic Planning

We have had staff brainstorming. Last year’s reviews identified some critical areas for improvement as,

• Digital Archiving
• Ensuring legal and regulatory compliance
• Identity staffing needs in Admin, IT, Legal, Research, Writing and Accounts
• Improved Project Monitoring, Data Management and Performance Management
• Better securing our Physical Infrastructure
• Discussed the organization Widely Important Goals

We have taken modest steps to address the above but work remains areas such as staffing and recruitment was followed by staff departure.

Internal Audit

Administration – Our administration is faced with the challenges of meeting work requirements with limited staffing and difficulties in working offsite. We updated the online documentation, the use of online management tools. We did better with maintained filing systems using the OSF platform, Library,  catalogues, wiki pages,  and internal blogs via tropicalclimate.org. Kanban boards helped with work tracking.  Regulatory reporting and establishing new constituent organizations and related operations were managed. Going forward, our plans are to and complete review of the organization.

HR – Proper practices are still needed to ensure legal compliance, establishing efficient documentation and technology practices and identifying strengths and weaknesses. We plan to clarify the HR department’s duties and responsibilities, and find steps to mitigate our critical HR problems.

Finance- We have audited the accompanying Financial Statements of Tropical Climate (Guarantee), FECT & DS, which comprise the Statement of Financial Position as at 31st March, 2019 and the Statement of Income and Expenditure for the year then ended together with the notes to the accounts given their in.  Audits are in progress for FECT-MV and for 2020/2021 year.

fect.lk

Motivated by the Influencer project, the web portal for FECT.lk was developed this year, . Its look, feel and information are less technical than climate.lk, disaster.lk, cleanair.lk, drought.lk and disease.lk. Such a site was needed for wider outreach.

Social Media (SM) with Fect.lk

A social media campaign was carried out starting in August to build our links to Alumni, Friends and build up our reach on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. We used the handle of @fectlk in these platforms. We did better in our outreach but nowhere close to what our content warrants.

SM outreach on FB, LinkedIn, Twitter

Weekly updates of climate bulletins are posted in Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter at @fectlk and @climatemv..

Weekly and monthly Climate Bulletins for Sri Lanka

Weekly and annual climate bulletins are updated and are available at www.fect.lk

fect.mv

The new web portal for Maldives is being developed with the intention of advancing essential understanding on climate disaster and environment risks at fine scales. Fect.mv project is in progress.

Science for Service program

A motivational program was held at Akurana Girl’s College for AL Science and Geography students. This program was collaborated with Tropical Climate. Seventy (Advanced Level) students were participated it. Presentations were conducted on Dengue in Akurana by Tharani Kailavasan, Instruments in Akurana by AWS’s, AQ, Soil Moisture, River Level by Zain Iwais, Air Quality in Akurana by Kokila Wickramasinghe. Lareef Zubair conducted a Question & Answer Session with students. We tried to distract the students from the Tuition classes and on to Research and Projects but we have rarely succeeded.

Regional Symposium on Disaster Risk Management

Was conducted by South Eastern University of Sri Lanka in collaboration with District Management Center (DDMC) Ampara. It was held on 16.12.2021 at 9.00 a.m. Keynote address by Dr. Lareef Zubair along with the Director of the DMC and Vice Chancellor. The FECT presentation asked that we acknowledge the failure to reduce risk in the last decade.

Centre for Investigative Reporting   

The Center for Investigative Reporting (cir.lk) held two workshops with Journalists and Environmental Researchers on Neglected Environmental Topics in Sri Lanka in October and one with Journalists and Researchers on Climate Change. Lareef Zubair contributed as a Resource Person and asked that we acknowledge the failure to advance the sciences for Sri Lanka.

SLAAS Social Science Section  

Lareef Zubair contributed to the Social Science Committee of the Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science for 2021 through its monthly meetings, reviewing presentations and support for external events.

Xpress Pearl Ship Disaster

FECT staff took it upon themselves to contribute to the call for scientific information from the Ministry of Justice and the Marine Environmental Protection Agency.

Hearings at Labor Tribunal were held on 08^th February, 17^th February, 06th August and 14^th December 2021 following the complaint by one of the beneficiaries of FECT. The Litigant evidence was led by her lawyer for 10 sitting and 3 years. Cross-Examination shall probably take more years followed by other witnesses.

Hearings at Magistrate Court were held on 23^rd March, 20^th July and 23^rd November 2021. Each of these dates only resulted in postponement and on the last date, the proceedings were suspended.

Hearing at Court of Appeal was scheduled on 28^th July 2021 but postponed due to covid emergency and due on January 18 with a new Bench.

Visit by ETF – The Digana office were given a surprise inspection by two officers claiming to be from the Employees Trust Fund on 22^nd September 2020. We are awaiting the records of the ETF using RTI.

RTI Commission – FECT has complained about the failure of the Labour Department to handover all their documents in a timely manner. The hearing scheduled for July was postponed to 10 January 2022 as new Commissioners were recently appointed.

While the 2020 Annual Reports for Foundation (FECT), and Tropical Climate (TC) were submitted by Ralapanawe Associates and Disaster Services were submitted by Ms. Hidaya Rousdeen.  Annual Financial Report for FECT and DS for year 2021 are in progress. TC will be submitted.A Bank Account for TC was obtained in New York in 2021. Voluntary Service Organization for FECT and TC  were not submitted in 2021 due to no good reason.

Audits for 2019/2020 for FECT TCG and DS were undertaken by Anzari and Company.

Accounts were prepared for FECT-MV and FECT-Inc. A USD Account was opened in October 2020. A Bank Account was opened for the Federation in June 2021. Chase Bank Account for TCG was opened in 2021.

Tools for Welding and Electrical Repair were obtained. Our workshops were made serviceable.

A 5 KW solar roof top installation was undertaken in the Akurana office and after some delays is providing electricity to the CEB. Unfortunately, it is a condition of the CEB that we cannot use the power directly if there is a power cut.

COVID Impacts – We had to manage our work in the office, from home and in hybrid mode in keeping with the prevailing risk from COVID -19. We were proactive in asking our staff to work from home before the government requested for it. Staff in our offices were able to adopt low risk practices but the difficulty was in the travelling. Some used public transport and others staggered their hours so as to travel during periods with low traffic density.  While the work from home was effective at an individual level for some, there were negative consequences from the lack of collaborative work and informal interactions, the failures in computer and related infrastructure at home, and from the mental health strains from such work from home.

Grants and Proposals – We were kept busy with completing three externally funded grants and one internally funded grant alongside our work on ongoing programs on climate, air quality, instrumentation and work on infrastructure. Alongside, we expended effort and time on one major proposal to USAID and other organizations. These proposals even if not successful, represent an investment in intellectual resources which we need to capitalize on.

Publications and Conferences – We worked on a dozen abstracts and reports for conferences. These shall be upgraded to publications.

Litigation Once the cases were filed, against the Foundation (FECT), we had made it part of our societal work to better understand the Regulatory system as applicable to the non-profit and charitable organizations. The laws in Sri Lanka are of course tilted against the “capitalists” who are seen to generate employment exploitatively.  In the case of the EPF and ETF regulations the determinations of the Commissioner and their agents are even placed outside judicial review. This has spawned an HR Industry in Sri Lanka and the use of various tactics to manage the burdens of the extractive state officials. It does not help the employees too in a situation where there are shortfalls in jobs as employers shall be reluctant to hire.  The regulatory agencies seem to work with exceeding diligence on occasion. In our case, through third parties, the officials have solicited bribes. Backdated letters were produced by them.  Justice systems don’t work If delayed but with covid the delays are exceeding.

National Financial Environment and Governance – We are looking to adapt to crises that we anticipate in managing our finances, keeping power supply on, obtaining supplies and for our staff to undertake their work, lives and manage their futures. Overall, the environment for work and engagement by private organizations have become more. However, the conditions in Maldives have been improving.

We thank our sponsors, friends and supporter for their guidance. Senior Scholars Dr. P.H.D. Kusumawathie, Prof. P. Wickramagamage, Dr. Vidhura Ralapanawe, Neil Devadasan, Prof. Jude Fernando continued to support us unstintedly. Muhlis Sadardeen helped with litigation, purchases, and logistics. Support of Nalaka Gunawardhana, Prof. Ajith De Alwis and Dr. K. Arulanathan was helpful with communication and research.

Support of the sponsors from the US Embassy, USAID and British High Commission and support and guidance of the associated staff is appreciated.  The support of Lanka Transformers Ltd, Lalan Group, Harpo Group, Windforce, Trinity College, Dr. RMSS Bandara, villagers in Norochcholai, Serakkuliya, Akurana who hosted our instruments is appreciated. Effective Training by the Influencer.lk team is appreciated. We appreciate the professionalism of our Company Secretaries, our Auditors and our Lawyers.

The support of partners in proposals in Maldives from the Maldives National University, the Ghaafu Dhaalu School System and Civil Society, Tourist Board, Red Crescent Maldives the Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Fisheries and agriculture, Maldives Association of Tourism Industry (MATI), ENSIS PVT Ltd.  (Fish processing company), Maldives Resilient Reefs, National Disaster Management Centre, Ministry of National Planning, Housing and Infrastructure, Ministry of Finance, Maldives Transport and Contracting Company (MTCC), Local Government Authority is appreciated.

We thank the Mahaweli Authority and the Central Province Health Authorities for partnership in our work. The support of partners including Sarvodaya, Environmental Foundation Ltd, Lanka Hydraulics Institute, Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, Kegalle Plantations, Tourism Sri Lanka, South Eastern University Sri Lanka, Sabaragamuwa University Sri Lanka, Open University of Sri Lanka, Green Business Council Sri Lanka, State Ministry of Rural Roads and other Infrastructures, Department of Meteorology, National Aquatic Resources Research and Development Authority (NARA), Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB), The Hotels Association of Sri Lanka, Irrigation Department, Planters Association of Sri Lanka, Ministry of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Development, & State Plantations (SLSPC)is appreciated.

Support of the Akurana Pradeshiya Sabhawa and Akurana Divisional Secretariat leadership and staff is appreciated. We thank the Centre for Investigative Reporting, the Akurana Ballika School, the South Eastern University and the US Embassy for engaging us in their programs. Our Alumni have supported our various activities pitching in when they can. We thank Mr. Nuhuman Marikkar of LTL, and Dr. Manjula Sandrigama, Dr. Sachith Abeysundera, Dr. Udayana Ranatunga (All UoP) and Mr. Rasika Dayarathna (UoC) for various assistance. Ms. Dilrukshi Handunetti and Team at the Centre for Investigative Reporting.

Prof Joaquim Goes, Prof. Aravinda de Silva, Dr. Bob Newton, Prof. A. Mahendran, Dr. Thahani Shifna, Dr. Mickey Glantz, Robert Ross, Remi Cousin, Prof. Alessandra Giannini, Dr. Tufa Dinku  assisted us with our grants, proposals, papers and technical work on the Data Library. Prof Joaquim Goes, Dr. Bob Newton, Ms. Salma Peris, Anna de Silva, assisted us with proposals, Dr. Vinya Ariyaratne, Mr. JM Niswi and Mr. Chamindha Rajakaruna.

We thank the Director-General Dr. P.B. Hemantha Jayasinghe and Head of Environmental Monitoring Central Environmental Authority (CEA), the Department of Meteorology, the Central Province Health Director and District Health Director and Epidemiologists, Malaria Officers.

We thank the Assistant Director, (ARM & M). Mr. L.D. Jayasuriya and Mr. Akila Jayasundara (ARM & M) from the Laboratory Services Unit of the Central Environmental Authority (CEA) helped with air quality data.

We thank the Director, Ms. K. N. Kumudini Vidyalankara, Climate Change Secretariat and  Director, Mr. Sugath Dharmakeerthi, Air Resources and National Ozone Unit and their staff of the  Ministry of Mahaweli Development and Environment.

We thank of PEER program of the US National Academy of Science and in particular Ms. Kelly Robbins and Mr. Daniel Placht. We thank Ms. Nihani Riza of USAID in Sri Lanka and Priyantha Karunawasala, Adrian Mendis, Phillip Loosli, Joevinine Machado of the US Embassy in Colombo.