CBRN & EXPLOSIVE RESPONSIVENESS PROGRAMME TO THE PARLIAMENT STAFF

Chemical Biological Radiological and Nuclear and Explosive threats awareness program was successfully conducted to the parliament staff on 29 March 2023 as the result of request made by from Sri Lanka Army. The objective of this workshop was to acquaint the basic idea on CBRNE and possible threats levels of chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosives. The audience was consisted with Executive officials of Parliament, Non-executive officials, Parliament security section including tri forces members, Police, scanners monitoring section, entire workshop and more than 100 participants from virtual platform, further this workshop was conducted with supervision and guidance of Chief Field Engineer and the Engineer Division of Sri Lanka Army. The Official welcome address was conducted by the Serjeant - At - Arms in Parliament Mr Narendra Fernandoo.

Commanding Officer of 14 CBRN Regiment commenced the awareness workshop with the brief description of Roles and Tasks of CBRN Response Regiment and further the instructor team emphasized on basic CBRN concept as an acronym to describe Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear materials and agents that could harm the society through their accidental or deliberate release, dissemination, or impacts and the CBRN threat landscape has rapidly evolved in the last few years. In this context, maintaining a peaceful and conducive environment in the country such as Sri Lanka with zero CBRN threat would be a mandatory obligation with the degree of future industrialization and the possible terrorist threat with the regard to the geopolitical status. Following topics were thoroughly discussed during the mid-session of the awareness workshop:

During the mid-session, the parliament security staff was educated initially about the Chemical warfare and what are the possible threats in Sri Lanka from it such as chemical spill or release, fire and explosions, transportation accidents. Subsequently they were educated about the Biological threats to Sri Lanka such as Epidemic Diseases, bio terrorism and poor biological waste management and they were taught about the possible expected radiation and nuclear threats in Sri Lanka such as Dangerous source in a fire, unshielded sources and theft of a dangerous source with the specimens.

After giving a brief idea of these elements and who are the first responders and their tasks they were taught about conceivable threats for the parliament such as Hazard chemical spill or release, Sabotage actions, Chemical and Biological attacks on buildings, Bio terrorism and Epidemic Disease and they were imparted how they can overcome from those threats and how to react for those consequently.

During the second session, the parliament security staff was educated about the IEDs and their threat to the parliament. After the session, they have given practical examples related to the scanners. The explosive was taken through the scanner and its identification was described in detail to the security staff who are operating the scanners near the entrance. In conclusion, this programme was conducted magnificently by the Lt Col BMPK Beligahawaththa RSP USP SLR (14 CBRN -CO), Maj YAMK Yapa psc SLE (OC-141 EOD SQN) and Maj KVP Gunasekara SLE (OC – 142 EOD SQN)