Dearth of engineering professionals hits irrigation sector

By Gamini Warushamana

A shortage of workers has already affected economic sectors from agriculture, tea and rubber plantations to the apparel industry. Today, the issue has spread to the government service. A severe shortage of professional engineering staff and middle-level technical staff has affected the construction and maintenance work of the irrigation sector, said the Office Engineer of the Ministry of Irrigation and Water Resource Management, Wijaya Basnayake.

He said that the Department of Irrigation and the Mahaweli Development Authority have seriously felt the dearth. Most of the construction work of new irrigation projects and renovation and reconstruction of irrigation systems in the Northern and Eastern provinces have now become a challenge.

There are several vacancies in the government sector and there is a shortage of 200 engineers and middle-level engineering staff in the institute under the ministry, he said.

There are several reasons for the high attrition rate of professionals and the difficulty in recruiting new graduates. The main reason is the huge opportunities and demand in the civil engineering sector where the private sector offers comparatively attractive salaries.

The demand from the overseas job market too is high for civil engineers and obviously the choice of experienced and new professionals is the lucrative private and overseas sectors and not government service.

According to Basnayake, most of the irrigation projects of State agencies are in rural areas and professionals are reluctant to go there. To attract young graduate engineers the ministry has launched promotional campaigns in the engineering faculties of the universities.

An awareness program was held on June 26 at the Engineering Faculty of the University of Peradeniya, which focused on final year students of the faculty. The Secretary to the Ministry of Irrigation and Water Resource Management, K.W. Ivan de Silva and officials were present.

Wijaya Basnayake

Neil Bandara

Basnayake said that government institutions are the best places for young engineering graduates to start their career. In the government sector, they gain experience in a wider area and work under senior, experienced and qualified engineers.

Government institutions are the best places for them to carry out postgraduate studies, specially to gain chartered qualifications. In the private sector, most jobs are restricted to small, specialised areas and the engineers who gain experience in state agencies have a higher demand in the private sector and in the overseas job market.

"Young graduates have a moral responsibility to serve the people in the rural areas where their service is needed because it is the free education system which enables students to study in these universities - the cost of which is borne by the people," he said.

The issue is also prevalent among mid-level engineering staff. Since there is no other way to solve the problem, the Ministry of Irrigation and Water Resource Management has started its own training centre.

The Kotmale International Training Institute was set up in November 2012. The head of the institute, Eng. Neil Bandara said that the institute will train professionals according to the needs of the agencies under the ministry.

"We recruit young people with Advanced Level Mathematics qualifications and provide them a three-year course which includes a two-year academic course and one year's training. The first batch of 60 is now undergoing training and the second batch will be recruited in December," he said.

They are recruited as employees of the ministry and are bound to serve a minimum of five years in an institute under the ministry, Bandara said.

The training centre has been set up in an abandoned site of the Kotmale project, belonging to the Mahaweli Authority. The modern training centre has the facilities required for residential courses.

Bandara said that the ministry plans to further expand the capacity of the training centre and uplift the centre to international standards. Students get the National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) level 6 qualification after the completion of the course.