50 security personnel begin disaster management training
The National Coordinator of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), Mr Kofi Portuphy, has said the organisation is currently adequately equipped to take charge of disasters in the country.
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“Our readiness is even more enticing because we have built and are ready to operate a national world emergency operations centre where we will put all equipment needed for early warning systems,” he said.
He added that the centre, when in full operation, would also pass on information to all disaster management collaborators as quickly as possible “so that our response will be better”.
“We have been trained already by the Americans so we can pick the information and wherever in the city, wherever in the country, we can easily locate areas which would make our response better,” he added.
Mr Portuphy made these statements at the opening ceremony of a one-week international disaster management course for security agencies in Accra yesterday.
The training, which brought together 50 security personnel from the various agencies, was intended to improve their efforts to manage natural and man-made disasters and was organised by NADMO with funding from the British High Commission.
Participants would be trained by professors from the Bournemouth University Disaster Management Centre, a university based in the United Kingdom that specialises in disaster management.
Some of the topics to be treated include; principles and objectives of sound disaster management; introduction to risk analysis and dealing with mass casualties, among others.
Mr Kofi Portuphy also said the programme, which was the fourth in the planned series, was essential for disaster prevention and that so far, over 300 Ghanaians from the various security agencies, the private sector, and non-governmental organisations had received training in disaster management. Mr Portuphy urged the participants to utilise the knowledge they had acquired from the training for the benefit of the country.
In his address, the Director of Bournemouth University Disaster Management Centre, Mr Richard Gordon, said the course aimed at sharing the best practices in disaster management.
“This course also aims at encouraging integrated expertise across different agencies to respond effectively to disaster management,” he said.