Minister visits NADMO

Mr Kofi Portuphy

Accra, Sept 20, GNA - Mr Kofi Portuphy, Coordinator for National Disaster Management Organisation, (NADMO) has said the Government has provided support for its emergency relief operations in the event of disasters.

He said the United Nations Development Programme had also pledged 75,000 dollars for capacity building throughout the country to make its workers and volunteers resilient, and for the review of NADMO Act, (Act 517).

Mr Portuphy, who said this when the Minister of the Interior, Mr Mark Owen Woyongo, paid a familiarisation visit to the organisation, in Accra, on Friday, explained that the objective of the international aid was to support the work of a new emergency operation centre, which would soon be furnished by the American Army.

He said the centre, expected to be commissioned by December 2014, would monitor disasters from every corner of the country to either prevent them from occurring or provide fast relief services to victims should they occur.

The organisation had also received excavators from the Japanese Government which, he said, were used to de-silt gutters to allow water to flow fast.

Mr Portuphy said Act 517, when reviewed, would make it mandatory for districts assemblies to provide three per cent of their common funds to address disaster problems.

He said though funding for their operations was imperative, the organisation had realised the need to build the capacity of its members to quickly respond to disasters.

Thus four officials from the 48 Engineers Regiment and 64 Infantry Regiment were in the United Kingdom (UK) for a two-week training programme.

The Coordinator said that though equipment used by NADMO were not the best, NADMO was the first in Africa to response to disasters, explaining that it operated in the camps of the Liberians and Ivoirians living in Ghana.

It also received deportees from the UK who were assisted to re-settle and reintegrate into the society, he said.

He, however, complained that NADMO's offices in the district did not have vehicles to respond to problems of both fires and floods.

'We should not wait till diseases, like Ebola, strike before preventive measures are put in place but everybody is needed to try to keep the environment clean and not fill gutters with filth,' he said.

He urged the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission to recognize the fact that NADMO staff also worked 24/7 and enhance their salaries.

Mr Woyongo, for his part, described NADMO as a 'Mecca' to African countries because most African countries relied on NADMO for consultancy to establish similar organisations in their countries.

He said the issue of inadequate funding was not only faced by NADMO but all the Ministries, Departments, and Agencies and encouraged the staff to keep their hopes high because    Ghanaians would soon experience better lives as the economy would soon turn around because the cedi had started stabilising.

Mr Woyongo urged NADMO to find alternative sources of funding so that they could come go to the aid of flood victims on time.

He lauded NADMO's capacity building drive, saying, in times of need they could be deploy knowledgeable people, and even to other African countries to educate them on disasters.

He urged the staff to protect themselves because the Ebola virus disease was real and the death toll was worrying in the affected countries.

He asked the staff to make useful suggestions to the Ministry to be implemented to enhance NADMO's operations.

GNA