Sunday 10 February 2013

Training Programme on Lightning Protection

In the last one year or so, lightening has killed various people in Uganda and in the villages the causes of lightning have been attributed to superstition among other things. For people in the rural areas, it is difficult to fathom the scientific causes of lightening. This afternoon, I went to close a very powerful training programme at the Commonwealth resort Munyonyo which assembled some of the best brains in the world on the subject of lightning. A group of over 40 people from 16 countries participated in the training. This training was a result of an agreement by the Centre for Science and Technology of the non-aligned and other developing countries (NAM S and T Centre) meeting in Kathamandu Nepal. The objective of the training programme was to get an understanding of the basic understanding of lighting, lightening safety methods, protection of equipment and structures, low cost protection schemes, fast aid treatment and counseling of victims among others. The facilitators included Prof. Emeritaus Mary Ann Cooper of the University of Illinois Chicago, other professors came from the US, turkey, Malaysia, India and Sri Lanka. Prof. Arun Kulshreshtha the Director of the NAM S & T Centre was also a key facilitator at the seminar. This Centre is at the forefront of exploring scientific methods. At the end of the meeting, the group agreed to establish a Centre for research on lightening in Uganda. The programme was sponsored by UBC and organized by NAM S & T Centre, Science and Technology Uganda, Department of Meteorology, Uganda

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