<<Print>>

Mr. John Dramani Mahama, the Vice President, on Wednesday said government was working with the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) and other agencies to assist victims of recent floods in the country. He appealed to all communities within the flood prone areas to heed to advice from the disaster management agencies to minimise the impact of the floods. Mr. Mahama said in a speech read for him at the inauguration and launch of the national platform on disaster risk reduction and climate change risk management on the theme; "Hospitals Safe From Disasters" The fifty-member board was inaugurated as part of activities to mark the 2009 World Disaster Reduction and Climate Change Risk Management Day. The platform concept, in order to involve communities at all levels is being implemented from the national through regional to the district level. It is aimed at involving communities at all levels. He said the nation was currently confronted with the incident of massive flooding up country after three successive weeks of heavy downpour. Mr. Mahama noted that the situation has been exacerbated by the spillage of water from the Bagre Dam in neighbouring Burkina Faso at the heels of an earlier flooding in Greater Accra, Central, Western and Ashanti Regions. He said: "I am saddened by the fact that some lives have been lost, thousands of acres of farms submerged, properties worth millions of cedis destroyed and a number of social infrastructure completely washed away." Mr. Mahama added: "May I take this opportunity to remind responders to take into consideration the rights of disaster victims and particularly those with special needs, including the physically challenged, the aged, pregnant women and children in all relief operations". The Vice President said it was the expectation of government that the national platform served as the pivot of the national disaster management organisation. He said it was important that disaster risk reduction was regarded as a national and cross-cutting issue within sustainable development. "The national platform should influence changes through concerted and coordinated efforts particularly in policy, planning and decision making process of the organisation." He noted. The Vice President reminded members that their nomination to serve on the body was a call to national duty and the society would look up to them for guidance and inspiration for strategies to effectively reduce risk and adapt to the effects of climate change in the country. Mr. Cletus Avoka, Minister for the Interior, said to strengthen the capacity of NADMO for effective co-ordination, proposals had been submitted to the Ministry for further action on the amendment of Act 517 of 1996 which established NADMO. He said the platform for the northern, Upper East and Upper West regions were inaugurated week ago adding, similar platforms will be constituted in the rest of the regions as soon as possible. Mr. Avoka commended Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and United Nations Development Programme for supporting the projects in the southern and northern parts of Ghana respectively. He noted that realising the impact of disasters on life and development worldwide, the United Nations declared the 1990s the international decade for Natural Disaster Reduction. Mr. Kofi Portuphy, National Coordinator of NADMO, said the inaugural ceremony was an activity in fulfilment of UN obligation to put up a national platform that would include churches, market women, parliamentarians and celebrities to draw attention to the implications of hazards. This is to enable the platform to verify and check people building in areas that were disaster prone and to stop future hazards. He said hospitals were to be equipped to meet the needs of victims of disasters. He said NADMO was organising community consultation to build dams to reduce risk of disaster due to climate change and "we are identifying and mapping out the disaster prone areas".