Capacity building for sustainable post disaster waste management: Construction \& demolition waste

Disasters, both natural and man-made, have been occurring with increasing frequency and effect
in recent decades in many countries around the world. Among them, Sri Lanka is yet to recover
from the effects of December 2004 Tsunami. Among many other reasons it has been identified
that lack of awareness of the mechanisms and systems for post disaster waste management is a
critical issue of concern. None of the Sri Lankan academic institutions related to the field offer
courses designed for the management of disaster waste within the country. Furthermore, none of
these institutions conduct awareness programmes aimed at the public on new mechanisms and
systems of management of disaster waste. To address these issues, this research aims to enhance
capacities to develop new mechanisms and systems for sustainable post disaster waste
management focusing on construction and demolition waste. To achieve the identified aim, the
research will explore current status of disaster waste management in Sri Lanka and a framework
will be proposed for enhancing capacities for sustainable disaster waste management in
economical, social and technological aspects. The research methodology includes a
comprehensive literature review, semi structured interviews and case study with selected
personal views on management of disaster waste management. In this context, the objective of
this paper is to present the current scenario of disaster waste management based on the results of
a secondary survey.