Ernest Ohene-Kissiedu
3 September 2007
Accra — The Interior Minister, Mr. Kwamena Bartels has said effective response to emergencies requires multi-disciplinary and multi-sectoral approach and called on disaster management institutions and agencies to build and maintain good communication and collaborative channels among themselves and the National Disaster Management Oorganization (NADMP).
A single disaster, he said, could wipe out developments which had taken so many years and huge amounts of both human and material resources to build. "It is incumbent on all of us to know what type of risks we live with and know how to combat them if and when they occur", he noted.
Mr. Bartels, who was speaking at the presentation of report on "Exercise Ahoboa (Preparedness) 2007" in Accra, said it is the desire of the government to build the capacity of NADMO and all the stakeholder agencies for effective rapid response to emergencies.
The government, he said, would continue to support training programmes at all levels, which are aimed at attaining the ultimate goal of rapid response to emergencies when they occur.
He urged all agencies to take good note of all the lapses involved in disaster management and put in place various measures to correct them.
The Interior Minister thanked the Civil-Military Co-operation (CIMIC) Group for sharing their knowledge and experiences on disaster management with the people of Ghana.
On receiving the report on the exercise from the CIMIC Group, Mr. Bartels assured the group that the findings and recommendations would be used to help enhance the standard of the country's national disaster preparedness.
Disasters such as earthquakes, floods and tsunamis over the years have affected the socio-economic growth of many countries. The United Nations (UN) General Assembly proposed a resolution 2034 that calls on all nations to establish mechanisms to manage disasters and emergencies. As a result, the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) was established in 1997 by an Act of Parliament and is responsible for management of disasters and emergencies and the coordination of relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction.
The National Disaster Management Plan of NADMO has suggested models for disaster management at the strategic, operational and tactical levels. These models include clearly defined, understood and agreed roles and responsibilities, properly trained and well equipped personnel at Emergency Operation Centres (EOC), developed and well communicated standard templates for consistent information management and the coordination of damaged needs allocated to the right level in the disaster management system.
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