NADMO Pushes For Disaster Fund

The National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) has proposed an amendment of the law establishing it (Act 517) to pave the way for the establishment of the proposed disaster fund.

The setting up of such a fund will enable stakeholders in disaster management to access it in order to respond swiftly to disaster without having to go through a bureaucratic process.

Alhaji Sulemana Yirimea, Deputy National Coordinator of NADMO responsible for Relief and Reconstruction, explained that the organization does not have an “immediate source of fund” to access to control disasters when they occur.

He was contributing to discussions at a workshop on disaster management organized by the North Dakota National Guard of the United States in collaboration with the Ghana Armed Forces in Accra yesterday.

The two-day workshop, which is being attended by 25 personnel from the Armed Forces, Police Service, Fire Service and NADMO, will provide a platform for participants to share experiences and discuss common challenges in preparation and response to disasters in Ghana.

Alhaji Yirimea disclosed that a proposal relating to the amendment had been forwarded to the Attorney-General’s Department for their consideration.

He said that managing disasters was not the sole responsibility of NADMO and called for closer collaboration between the private and public sectors in disaster management and prevention.

Earlier in his opening address, Commodore Mohammed Tahiru, Director General of Training of the Ghana Armed Forces stated that crisis management requires an integrated approach since the issues involved were multi-dimensional.

He said in the areas of national disasters such as the floods that had inundated Accra and its environs in recent years, the military and the other security services had assisted NADMO in bringing the situation under control.

“It is, therefore, clear that there is quite an enviable history of the security services involvement in disaster management in Ghana,” he said.

That not withstanding, Commodore Tahiru said, there was the need to fully identify what types of crisis or disaster situations the country might be called upon to manage, and the extent to which NADMO and the emergency reviews were prepared and equipped to play their roles in the crisis.