Govt secures grant for emergency services (back Page)

The Government of Ghana has secured a grant of $7.5 million for an emergency preparedness plan for Accra and its surrounding areas to mitigate the effects of perennial floods in the city.
Part of the grant would be used to purchase equipment for clearing choked drainage systems and water tanks for the supply of fresh water to flood victims in emergency relief situations.
This was announced by Mr Kofi Portuphy when he opened a workshop on emergency preparedness for 60 participants drawn from disaster management organisations in Accra yesterday.
The organisations included the Ghana National Fire service, the Ghana Maritime Authority, the Ghana Navy, National Ambulance Service and the Ghana Police Service
Mr Portuphy appealed to residents in Accra to put a stop to the practice of discharging refuse into the drainage system especially when it was raining.
He said the Ministry of the Interior was working closely with other ministries to review the building code to empower NADMO to take action against estate developers who built on water courses.
Mr Jan V. Meertens, the Executive Director of International Centre for Emergency Techniques (ICET), said his organisation had entered into partnership with NADMO to share information on the best disaster emergency practices.
He said that could enable NADMO to build its human resource capacity to undertake complicated disaster prevention operations relying on local resources.
Mr Meertgen said the workshop was, therefore, part of the series of training programmes designed to raise the emergency preparedness of NADMO and other disaster management organisations.
Meanwhile, with the rainy season a few weeks away, Seth J. Bokpe reports that the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) has begun clearing major drains in the cities of silt to ensure general sanitation to minimise the possible consequences of the rains on life and property.
Additionally, the organisation has set up a Rapid Response Team for rescue operations during flooding.
In an interview with the Daily Graphic in Accra on Monday, the National Co-ordinator of NADMO, Mr Kofi Portuphy, said already 75 per cent of storm drains in Accra had been cleared of silt.
He said NADMO was working with the Hydrological Services Department to clear all the storm drains in urban areas in the country of silt.
He said NADMO had embarked on public education throughout the country.
He identified the surroundings areas of the Odaw River, Alajo, North Kaneshie, Fadama, Sakaman, Awoshie, Gbawe, Dzorwulu, Nima, Maamobi, Roman Ridge, parts of East Legon, and Airport West as some of the flood-prone areas in Accra.
He appealed to the general public and corporate establishments to lend support to the NADMO’s pre-flooding campaign programme to ensure that it achieved its objective.
The perennial torrential rains that hit the Accra metropolis create heavy floods causing great havoc to life and property.
Last year’s rain just like others in the past killed several people in the Accra metropolis with Kaneshie and its environs being the worst hit.

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