Ghana Needs A Strong Defensive And Preventive Mechanism To Halt Climate Change In The Country

An area of critical climate change policy that needs to be implemented in the country is the Disaster Preparedness and Prevention rather than on disaster response. The Disaster Preparedness and Prevention Policy should be aimed at preventing disasters by tackling their root causes, building in advance the capacity necessary to reduce the impact of disasters and to ensure the timely arrival of necessary assistance to victims of disasters. More than 80% of the disasters in Ghana are considered to be climate-related.

Climate change is expected to increase the frequency and magnitude of many types of extreme events such as floods, droughts and wildfires as well as to affect the intensity, duration and magnitude of other occurrences such as landslides, heat waves and disease outbreaks are the direct economic, physical and human losses; however, the indirect impact on production time, cost of essential goods and services or market shares is far more costly. The adverse impact of climate change on society may increase disaster risk; disasters erode environmental and social resilience, and thus increase vulnerability to climate change.

Because climate change means less predictable weather, knowledge of previous extreme weather patterns is no longer a reliable guide to what will happen in the future, but the frequency and intensity of disasters is expected to increase. The flood in Ghana is perennial where people are either killed or displaced. An evident of a flood disaster such as the one that occurred in 2007 which has affected about 332.600 people and caused the death of 56 persons in the upper east, upper west in the northern regions and parts of western region. Also, the frequent droughts have led to power rationing. Moreover, the recent flood on June 3^rd 2015 has caused the death of 159 from twin flood and fire disaster and displaced hundreds of Ghanaians in the country. This situation is so alarming and therefore needs a strong policy to be implemented.

The National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO) in Ghana was established to manage disasters and similar emergencies in the country and has since been providing support to disaster affected victims and yet the National Climate Change Policy (NCCP) does not provide any direction in clear terms as to how it intends to feed into the work of NADMO or vice versa. Indeed, a project supported by UNDP failed to achieve its intended purpose due to poor coordination. Even where Community Action Plans exist in Ghana, there are no specific projects or programs in place to capacitate communities towards disaster risk reduction. Repeated small-scale disasters are every bit as devastating for those affected as are major disasters, wiping out livelihoods and assets and destroying homes. Systems need to ensure that such disasters receive as much attention and equal responds, as the disasters that hit the headlines.

My beloved country therefore needs to implement the disaster preparedness and prevention policy by building a climate-resilient society-a society that can rely on effective early warning and response system, where everyone has a broad understanding of climate hazards, and where the emphasis is on disaster preparedness and prevention, rather than on disaster response. Also, the government should move away from the emphasis of disaster risk management that deals with the immediate aftermath of a disaster, to long-term disaster resilience.

Moreover, the Government should set-up a National Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Fund to cover funding shortfalls of regions in their efforts to link relief with development programs and the funds should provide withdrawal rights to regions to support relief programs base on prioritized needs in the event that such programs cannot fully be resourced from regular budget sources. The Government needs to do this without delay and stop soliciting for funds after the disaster which has never helped the victims for so many years.

Furthermore, the widespread of disasters such as floods and epidemics, the loss of life and property damage, and the economic and social disruption calls for the need for more effective non-food response capacity building. This task calls for action to be taken to strengthen the emergency preparedness capacity of the country through the establishment of a national contingency stock of essential materials in order to build up a quick intervention capacity when disasters occur. In this regard, the first measure to be taken is to immediately embark on building the stock initially through pooling of available resources. Subsequently, the gap will be filled by mobilizing additional resources.

Ghana is confronted with challenges such as lack of dependable finance, weak coordination and the continuation of a number of reactive approaches but these challenges are worsened by weak institutional capacity, low public awareness, and the lack of detailed disaster risk profiles on earlier disasters that would equip Ghana to address similar problems in the future.

Measures are needed to build capacity, enhance and improve early warning systems as well as to improve the protective infrastructure, such as sea defence walls. Such measures need to be backed by effective international cooperation and by reliable and regular funding.

My problem when it comes to my country in their respond to curb a disaster is when the situation can no longer be controlled. Everybody can be a victim of flood in the country, and it comes unannounced just like death during the rainy season. The recent torrential rain in the country is an example. Where the victims informed before it happened? So is time for the Government and all to put our shoes in the victims to implement this policy in order to save our lives and properties in the country. Who knows what will happen in the next disaster, it could be you or anybody. It is time to prepare and prevent future floods than responding to floods after disasters in the country.

The Government needs to act now and stop waiting for the next disaster to occur to implement this policy. Disaster has no respect for persons; even the President can be a victim so now is the time to implement this policy and stop talking. Let’s walk the talk of the policy now!

Farida Abubakari, Ghana
Global Ambassador for Youth and Enlightenment and Welfare (YEW) Ghana

Agricultural Economist, Soil Scientist and a Climate Tracker for the Adopt a Negotiator program. Email: [email protected]