Ambrose Derry, Interior Minister
ON MONDAY, November 19, 2018, a five-day workshop on disaster risk management began in Accra.
The workshop, which is under the theme: ‘Building Disaster Resilience to Natural Hazards in Ghana’, seeks to showcase Ghana’s commitment to the priority areas of the Sendai Framework, and particularly to priority 3 which requires countries to invest in disaster risk reduction for resilience.
The Sendia Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction is a document adopted by the United Nations member states in March 2015 at the World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction held in Sendai, Japan, and endorsed by the UN General Assembly in June 2015.
The framework outlines seven clear targets and four priorities for action to prevent new disaster risks and reduce existing ones.
The four priority areas are understanding disaster risk, strengthening disaster risk governance to manage disaster risk, investing in disaster reduction for resilience and enhancing disaster preparedness for effective response, and to build back in terms of recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction.
The framework aims to, among other things, achieve substantial reduction of disaster risks and losses in lives, livelihoods and health and in the economic, physical, social, cultural and environmental assets of persons, businesses, communities and countries over the next 15 years.
Addressing participants and other stakeholders at the opening ceremony of the workshop, Minister for the Interior, Ambrose Dery, explained that Ghana was committed to implementing the priority areas of the Sendai Framework.
According to him, in consonance with priority three which requires nations to invest in disaster risk reduction for resilience, the nation is putting measures in place to mitigate the various hazards facing the country.
The minister indicated that Ghana had experienced various forms of disasters such as floods, pests and insect infestations, fires, disease epidemics, climate-related hazards and most recently, structural collapses.
For instance, Mr Dery cited the recent massive flooding in some parts of the country as a result of the spillage of the Bagre Dam in Burkina Faso and Weija Dam in the Greater Accra Region as some of the disasters which have caused destruction to lives and properties worth millions of cedis.
Mr. Dery noted that to mitigate the effects of such disasters, government in the 2018 budget committed GH¢5.5 million for the construction and dredging of some critical storm drains.
He indicated that “drains in areas such as South Kaneshie, Awudome, Adabraka-Odawna are to be dredged or constructed to direct outflows into the Odaw drain. More of such initiatives will be implemented across the country.”
Again, he explained that to consolidate and strengthen the current land tenure arrangement and also to ensure an effective and efficient land administration, the Lands Commission was pursuing the processes which would lead to the enactment of the Land Bill and implementation of the Land Act.
“The Regional Spatial Development Framework (RSDF) for Greater Accra Region and Ashanti Region has been prepared and work is in progress on that of Central, Brong Ahafo, Eastern and Volta regions,” he disclosed.
He urged all stakeholders in the sector to continue to work towards providing solutions to hazards that are likely to manifest into disasters and encouraged participants in the workshop to show keen interest in the training and also give off their best.
BY Melvin Tarlue