The Lagos State Government has established early warning units in all the Local Governments/Council Development Areas to prevent disaster and to enhance emergency management across the state.
According to the Permanent Secretary of Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA), Dr. Olufemi Damilola Oke-Osanyintolu, there were also a local emergency management committee and local emergency response team in place to forestall disaster at the grassroots levels.
Oke-Osanyintolu disclosed this to journalists during the Strategic Meeting of the State Disaster Risk Reduction Technical Working Group in Lagos with the theme: “Validation of Disaster Risk Reduction Policy and Framework for Emergency Management Fund.”
Emphasising the need for more collaboration between key stakeholders in the emergency response sector as a key tool in effective emergency response; disaster risk management and reduction, the permanent secretary said the need for intelligent information to be effective at the preventive hour gave birth to the early warning units.
” Before anything happens, we leak it. Look at what we are doing to prevent flood in our system; we put a lot of things in place; we removed those houses that are obstructing the free flow of waters, we put our Ministry of Environment on its toes, we put our Building Control Agency on its toes, we put the Ministry of Physical Planning on its toes,we put the local governments on their toes; and together,we are achieving success. The success is clear,” Dr Oke – Osayintolu said.
He disclosed that LASEMA and the Disaster Risk Reduction Technical Working Group have developed and validated a twenty nine page document on Disaster Risk Reduction Policy and Framework for Emergency Management Fund for Lagos State.
The Permanent Secretary said the workshop of technical working group was to develop a safer and resilient smart city with strong institutions to reduce existing and prevent new disaster risk with a view to achieving minimal loss of lives and assets by individuals, communities and businesses by 2030.
Speaking on the theme of the workshop, a Risk Consultant, Dr. Olajide Sobande, explained that LASEMA as the coordinating agency must create an operational framework and guidelines to operationalise it’s core values and focus more on Mitigation, Preparedness and Prevention, to reduce resources on emergency management.
Going on, some of the stakeholders drawn from various Government and Non-Governmental Organisations, emphasised the need for a breakdown of roles, availability of resources and collation of data, while commending the state government for the engagement, which they described as a step in the right direction.
Recall that the Lagos State Disaster Risk Reduction Technical Working Group was inaugurated in September 2017 to foster inter-agency collaboration between first responders and other stakeholders.
Commending, one of the workshop’s participants, a Director from the Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency, Mrs Olabisi Sonibare, recalled that LASEMA had been in the forefront of disaster management in Nigeria, adding that coming up with the policy document would further enhance its operations
“We have various agencies represented here. We have come to discuss how to harmonize our activities in such that we have disaster-free Lagos,” she said.
Another consultant, Abiola Adeoye, said the workshop was an important forum to institutionalise disaster prevention.
