Disaster committee tasked to prioritise cholera prevention
The National Co-ordinator of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), Mr Kofi Portuphy, has called on members of the Ga Central Municipal Assembly Disaster Management Committee to make cholera one of their priority issues.
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He said cholera was becoming endemic in some parts of the district, hence the need to devise strategies aimed at addressing the situation.
“We must create awareness of good hygiene because cholera can be controlled if we do not engage in open defecation and other unhygienic practices,” he said.
Mr Portuphy made the call when he inaugurated the Ga Central Municipal Assembly Disaster Management Committee.
The inauguration is in line with provisions of the NADMO Act, Act 517 (1996) which provide for the setting up of disaster committees in all metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs).
The Ga Central Municipal Assembly is one of the 46 assemblies created in 2012.
On the recent fire outbreaks, Mr Portuphy charged members of the committee to map out strategies that would prevent any fire outbreak, considering the major social and economic impact fire incidents have had on the nation.
“The committee should identify natural and man-made hazards that have the potential of exploding into disaster before they happen,” adding, “We must be more concerned about disaster prevention than managing them.”
“If we do not educate the people on these hazards, we will not be able to do that during the occurrence of disasters,” he added.
Mr Portuphy further charged the committee to ensure that permits granted by the assembly to prospective developers did not compromise safety standards, since the area was flood and earthquake prone.
For his part, the Chairman of the committee, Mr Aristo Aryee, said the committee would live up to the objectives for which it was formed and solicited the support of residents of the district to help achieve its objectives.
He was glad that the assembly did not experience any disaster in the first half of the year but called for further collaboration to avert any disaster as the next rainy season approached.
By Fred Dzakpata/Daily Graphic/Ghana