Emergency Floods And Windstorm Preparedness Consultative Meeting Held

The Daily Observer (Banjul)

Sheriff Janko

9 June 2011

An inter-agency consultative meeting on Emergency Flood and Windstorm Preparedness with key humanitarian partners and relevant government institutions convened by the Office of the Vice President was held Wednesday at the conference room at the Office of the Vice President at State House.

The meeting was presided over by the vice president and minister of Women’s Affairs, Aja Dr Isatou Njie-Saidy, who also doubles as the chairperson of the National Disaster Governing Council. It attracted all the actors in disaster management and its related sectors. The synergy, which was described by officials as timely taking into account that the rainy season is fast approaching, also availed the partners the opportunity to be briefed on government’s strong view on the role of partners in the ongoing Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) efforts and the need to reinforce the existing coordination mechanism at all levels in a bid to enhance performance in their programme efforts, among others.

Addressing the gathering, Lamin Nyabally, the permanent secretary No.1 at the Office of the Vice President thanked all the partners for their past efforts, and assured that the partnership with stakeholders will continue to grow from strength to strength. He said: “On the part of government, there is no doubt as we are aware of the high political commitment of the government but sometimes the wherewithal is not always there. So, your efforts in complementing government’s efforts is something that we cherish and appreciate.”

For his part, Essa Khan, the executive director of the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA) described the meeting as important and timely in the sense that his agency has actually drawn some useful lessons from the floods of 2009/10 that inundated many neighbourhoods around the country. “Based on these lessons learned, the Disaster Governing Council is always advised on the strategic direction on how to enhance coordination and partnership. It is rightly for this reason that we are all gathered here for this important meetings as The Gambia is highly recognised for its political commitment on DRR,” he stated.

The NDMA boss further stated that the move is inline with priority one of the Hyogo Framework of Action, adding that the vice president has been going round upcountry to inspect works that have been undertaken by government as well as talking with donors and partners at the decentralised level prior to the onset of the rains. He disclosed that at the highest level, they have invited heads of institutions who are able partners to discuss and dialogue on the way forward for this coming rainy season. “And in so doing, therefore, we are pleased to inform you that the government has taken true ownership and leadership role of the process and as a result has spent a lot of resources in indentifying various disaster hotspots based on last year’s floods and is spending resources in mitigating the impact of future floods by doing infrastructure works and environmental intervention in the eight disaster hotspots,” he added.

He further disclosed that government has already spent close to D1 million in prepositioning relief items at the central level as well as in their regional warehouses, stressing that this preposioning is very important so they can prepare for any eventuality. While reiterating that fact that government fully recognised their mandate as partners, Khan said that government’s strategic direction now is on disaster risk reduction and in the implementation of the African Regional Strategy on Disaster Risk Reduction and the Hyogo Framework for Action.

“In line with this, therefore, partners are requested to try and re-align their interventions in support of the strategic direction and to harmonise their intervention in a bid to understand the principal of country ownership in the whole process by virtue of political accountability by government as well as for partners to be recognised at the driving government seat,” he added. Khan also pointed out the need for regional disaster management coordinators to lead regional coordination and leadership and work collaboratively with partners to enhance synergy. He finally informed the gathering that this year’s rainfall might be above normal.

Meanwhile, during the meeting participants discussed key issues among which were the need for effective coordination and no duplication of intervention; proper disaster coverage and ethical issues in coverage disaster information from the regions to be endorsed by the governors and mayors and cleared by with the NDMA before dispatch; and the proper planning of settlements and land use planning among a host of others.

AllAfrica – All the Time