Browsing by Author "Dasandara, SPM"

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item: Conference-Abstract
Climate change challenges facing Sri Lanka : a literature review
(2021-07) Dasandara, SPM; Kulatunga, U; Ingirige, MJB; Fernando, T
The earth’s climate has changed throughout history and climate change can be identified as an inevitable phenomenon which is being experienced by the whole world. When considering the Sri Lankan context, it is no different to the global context in that the country’s climate has already changed. Sri Lanka, being an island state, is vulnerable to many climate change impacts including high-temperature levels, adverse weather events, sea level rising, and changes in precipitation patterns. The many challenges that arise from these climate-related issues are projected to continue through this century and beyond. Thus, climate change mitigation and adaptation have become the most appropriate ways to restrain these climate change challenges in Sri Lanka. It is paramount to get a broad understanding of how disastrous these climate change challenges are, prior to implementing appropriate responses to overcome them. This urges the need for conducting an in-depth investigation of prevailing climate change challenges in Sri Lanka. Thus, this study presents the prevailing climate change challenges facing Sri Lanka through a conceptual framework, that has been developed based on the existing literature. The developed framework reveals how these prevailing climate changes can lead to a number of challenges. These challenges were identified under three main categories as economic, social, and environmental challenges. The knowledge generated through this literature review will be the focus of future research.
item: Article-Full-text
Limiting reasons for use of personal protective equipment among construction workers: Case studies in Sri Lanka
(Elsevier, 2021) Dasandara, SPM; Dissanayake, P
The Sri Lankan construction industry offers substantial employment opportunities and contributes significantly to national economic growth, but it is also plagued by unacceptably high rates of injuries and fatalities, especially among SME construction organisations. Existing literature disclosed that 90% of construction accidents in Sri Lanka are occurred due to unsafe behaviours of workers where the non-usage of personal protective equipment is prominent. Despite the abundance of research on construction safety, a gap in literature could be identified, when it comes to exploring the reasons behind the non-usage of PPE by construction workers in Sri Lanka. Therefore, this paper aimed to bridge the gap that exists in the existing literature. An exploratory case study was selected as the research strategy to achieve the research aim. Two SME construction projects were selected as cases. Fourteen semi-structured interviews were conducted in both cases with managerial and worker levels personnel. Data analysis was carried out using code-based content analysis. Findings were derived under three main categories, namely, ‘individual’, ‘organisational’, and ‘environmental’. Altogether 18 reasons including 09 reasons under the ‘individual’ category (refer Codes InC/R1 – InC/R9), another 08 reasons under the ‘organisational’ category (refer Codes OrC/R1-OrC/R8), and 01 reason under the ‘environmental’ category (refer Code EnC/R1) were identified in this study. The analysis of these reasons generated knowledge, which can be used by respective industrial safety practitioners in Sri Lanka in understanding the current situation and as a way forward for enhancing the use of PPE among construction workers.
item: Conference-Full-text
Negligent use of personal protective equipment by construction workers in Sri Lanka: Analysis of individual manifestations
(2020-10-06) Dasandara, SPM; Dissanayake, DMPP
The construction industry can be identified as one of the main sectors in Sri Lanka where the majority of occupational accidents happen. When considering the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME), occupational accidents have been significantly happened due to many reasons. Among those reasons, negligence of the use of PPE by construction workers has become prominent. Different factors can affect this situation. Among them, individual manifestations such as perceptions, beliefs, experiences and attitudes of the workers can make a significant impact. Hence, there is an emerging need to explore the reasons under these individual manifestations, which encourages the negligence use of PPE. This paper therefore aimed to analyse the individual manifestations to unveil the reasons behind the negligence of use of PPE by construction workers in Sri Lanka. A qualitative research approach was followed to achieve the aim of the study. Case studies were conducted using two SME construction projects. Fourteen semi structured interviews were conducted in both cases with managerial and worker level respondents. Collected data were analysed using code based content analysis. ‘Considering PPE as a disturbance’, ‘lack of experiences of the workers’, ‘poor education level of the workers’, ‘inadequate knowledge and skills of the workers’, ‘poor income level’, ‘age of the workers’, ‘number of dependencies’, ‘poor health condition’ and ‘different lifestyles of the workers’ were revealed through the empirical research findings as the key reasons under individual manifestations, which affect for the neglect usage of PPE by the workers. The knowledge generated through this study can be used in many ways by the industry practitioners to make safe working environment within the construction sites.