COMMITTEE ON ENGINEERING AND THE ENVIRONMENT

The World Congress on "Sustainable Development" was hosted  by the Institution of Engineers (India) on 20 23 ,January 2000 at Calcutta (India). Among its main features, an interesting program for encouraging students' participation in Sustainable Development was organized with the support of the Commonwealth Engineers' Council: an Essay Competition on the topic of ``Choice of Technology for Sustainable Development of Developed/Developing Countries". Mr George Oner Ogale from Kenya was the winner of the first prize.

The "Calcutta Declaration" formulated as a conclusion of the Congress stressed the role of Engineering in reducing the gap between developed and developing countries, essentially within the areas of economic growth, environmental education, access to water and energy resources.

This Declaration and its Recommendations have been published in the WFEO Newsletter and widely circulated for follow up action.

The International Conference on "Construction Industry (Challenges for Sustainable Development), Disaster Management, Environment Management was held on 18-20 Novemher, 2000 at Chandigarh(India) with the sponsorship of WFEO.

The President of WFEO, ,Jose Medem Sanjuan, participated in a  Round Table at New Delhi (India) on 7 April 2001, and  in a Forum organized by the Nepal Engineers' Association and the Federation  of Engineering  Institutions of South & Central Asia (FEISCA) on 11 - 13 April 2001 at Kathmandu. Sustainable Development and Natural disaster Mitigation were among the topics dealt with in these meetings. It appeared that Disaster Mitigation measures are increasingly important for ensuring sustainable development in long term planning perspective and technological innovations may help reduce the consequences. A World Congress on Natural Disaster Reduction, with intense deliberations and debates by experts, needs to be set up before long.

Quarterly issues of Newsletters have been published regularly since March 2000 in three languages (English, French and Spanish) and widely circulated within WFEO. Contributions from the member countries are most welcome.

The Committee wishes to express its appreciation to the Institution of Engineers (India) and  the Secretariat for extending all the infrastructure facilities in carrying out the Committee's activities.

by Mr. G.P. Lal