The Director-General, Ghana’s National Disaster Management (NADMO), Nana Prempeh, has urged ECOWAS and member states to scale up disaster preparedness response mechanisms.
Prempeh made the plea at a mid-term consultation meeting of the regional committee for disaster management in West Africa (GECEAO) in Abuja on Wednesday.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the three-day event, which commenced on Tuesday, aims to promote better coordination and harmonisation of disaster management efforts in West Africa.
Represented by his deputy, Frank Nansam-Aggrey, Prempeh said that such a step would help to tackle the spate of disaster occurrences in the subregion.
He said that disaster occurrences occasioned by natural and man-made hazardous events had increased in the past three decades.
“Member states must increase regional preparedness against extreme disaster occurrences such as floods, fires and other disasters that have caused a lot of distress situations to over 75 per cent of West Africa’s population.
“As reported in the ECOWAS Policy for Disaster Risk Reduction document, large numbers of people and their livelihoods in West African countries are exposed to at least one hazard event.
“This is further compounded by conflicts and diseases. In some instances, disasters have put development at risk and likewise, development decisions have led to increases in disaster risks.
“In response to these scenarios, the ECOWAS Commission and member states’ governments should increase the intensity of their interests and efforts in disaster risk reduction,” he said.
The NADMO boss noted that significant disaster incidents, such as flooding, sea erosion, and drought kept escalating in severity and magnitude in the sub-region, thereby causing budget overruns for member states.
He said that as climate change factors continued to worsen extreme weather events, the vulnerabilities of community citizens would equally increase, leading to negative financial implications for member countries.
“The extent of vulnerability to hazards in the sub-region accounts for the level of disaster devastation being experienced annually.
“This is in the midst of inadequate public financing to maintain and enhance resilience or provide relief assistance for victims,” he said.
He urged other member states to emulate Ghana, which he said had taken a number of measures to increase disaster response preparedness.
Prempeh listed some of these measures to include the establishment of emergency disaster fund, as well as technical and human resource capacity building mechanisms.
Other initiatives, according to him, are the establishment of technical committees to study and recommend best practices to combat serious disaster occurrences.
He said that Ghana also purchased drought risk sovereign insurance covers for small-holder farmers under the African risk capacity insurance support, as well as improved flood and drought early warning systems.
He said that additional measures included increased investment in disaster risk awareness creation through simulation exercises and planned relocation, among others.
Prempeh expressed confidence that the event would encourage collaboration among stakeholders for resource maximisation and minimise disaster risks and losses to build disaster-resilient communities across the ECOWAS sub-region.
