Ghana To Have Emergency Operations Centre

Ghana would soon commission a National Emergency Operations Centre (NEOC), to strategically coordinate stakeholder efforts in disaster and emergency operations. The NEOC is a four-storey edifice sited on the grounds of the headquarters of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), where the premier disaster organisation would harness the expertise of the security services, government agencies, and recovery groups to effectively manage disasters and emergencies when they occur. The United States Army is to furnish the Centre, which would enable government agencies and other disaster stakeholders to improve communications that would save lives and perk up relief efforts. Mr Kofi Portuphy, NADMO National Coordinator who conducted the media round the building said the centre would provide a central coordination point in responses to disasters. He said the centre would also coordinate all humanitarian assistance, collect, analyse and disseminate information on disasters to stakeholders, including the media, and promote preparedness activities at all levels of government. The NADMO Coordinator said the centre would help to develop and implement a joint national action plan for disaster management. Colonel M�bawine Atintande, Director of Public Relations of the Ghana Armed Forces expressed the need for NADMO to assume a central role in coordinating relief efforts for effective disaster mitigating operations.