UK charity maps Sri Lanka aid effort

Sri Lanka's president visits MapAction's operation in Colombo

The authorities and relief agencies in Sri Lanka have been delivering aid on the tsunami-ravaged island using maps produced 24 hours a day by a team of British volunteers.

Eleven experts, from UK-based charity MapAction, which specialises in mapping for humanitarian operations, flew to the capital Colombo two days after the Indian Ocean earthquake.

The team has employed global positioning system (GPS) technology, which uses satellites to gather navigational information, to map the developing situation in the country.

Nigel Woof, MapAction's operations manager in Sri Lanka, said they had been producing 25 to 30 new or updated maps every day since their arrival on 29 December.

"We are a volunteer team who train together for this type of situation, so we were able to hit the ground running," he said.

"There is no other agency, that we know of, that can deploy a fully-trained and equipped field mapping and production team anywhere in the world within 48 hours."

The first maps detailed numbers of people dead, injured, missing or displaced in different areas.

Our ability to present information in map form, so [organisations] can plan their response, people are saying that is hugely helpful Nigel Woof MapAction operations manager

MapAction then produced maps showing damage to the nation's infrastructure - particularly roads and bridges.

These helped the government and aid organisations monitor where aid was most needed, and the routes by which it could be transported.

Later maps recorded the distribution of that aid, showing the location of the likes of food depots and field hospitals.

"People are under immense pressure to make decisions and understand this mass of information that is coming in," Mr Woof said.

"Our ability to present that information in map form, so they can plan their response, people are saying that is hugely helpful."

Aid workers were able to plan journeys using MapAction maps of blocked roads, damaged bridges and diversions Enlarge Map

Roger Wedge, who has co-ordinated operations in the UK, added: "We help them to be more efficient and more effective in what they are doing."

The team is based within the Sri Lankan government's Centre for National Operations (CNO) in Colombo.

It has briefed more than 70 aid workers, presenting updated maps, at daily conferences in the CNO.

MapAction members have carried out some data collection themselves, travelling by car and helicopter, but the vastness of the affected area means they have largely relied on information passed back by officials and organisations spread across the country.

The team is due to return to the UK on 12 January, but will be donating some of its equipment to the CNO and is training local people to use it to continue mapping the aid effort.

'Traumatic'

"We will leave behind us an organisation that can continue to do the job," Mr Wedge said.

He added: "It is the biggest operation that we have been on and, I guess, most people have been on.

They are providing a particularly important service to the Sri Lankan government Roger Wedge MapAction UK co-ordinator

"The team have been working really long hours, so they are fairly tired now, and it has been quite traumatic when they have been out in different areas.

"But they get on with the job and are satisfied with what they have done.

"They are providing a particularly important service to the Sri Lankan government."

MapAction has previously been involved in humanitarian operations in Kosovo within Serbia and Montenegro, Lesotho and Chad.