The scout movement joins the power conservation drive.

The scout movement worldwide consists of around 40 million members and is established in 150 countries. In Sri Lanka alone there are around 50,000 scouts representing all the districts in the country. Recently the Sustainable Energy Authority launched a program through the scout movement to educate the people on power conservation methods. Through this initiative measures have been taken to conduct power conservation seminars and camps at zonal level together with the scout movement.

Concurrent to this program power conservation will also be introduced into the scouting syllabus. Any scout or Girl Guide completing the syllabus will be awarded the scout competency medal. The minister of power and energy Patali Champika Ranawaka unveiled the new medal at a scout camp recently. A book on power conservation written by Chirani Dissanayake who is a teacher at Visaka Vidyalaya was also launched during the scout power conservation camp held throughout last week.

Minister Ranawaka addressing the inaugural ceremony at Mihilaka Medura on 07 October that commenced the week long power conservation scout camp said that throughout history the scout movement had not only focused on education, but also on issues affecting society as a whole. The minister also thanked the scout movement for joining hands to educate the people on the importance of power conservation.

He further stated that at a stage when the reservoirs are reaching critical levels due to the lack of rain and the country was heading toward an inevitable power crisis, due to the collective effort of the entire country in conserving power, we have been able to face the situation and avert a major power crisis in the country.