Workshop on climate change management held in Accra

A national disaster risk reduction workshop was held in Accra on Thursday to map up strategies and action plans that could be adopted by Ghana to mitigate and manage disasters resulting from climatic change.

The workshop brought together technical experts including districts and regional government officials from National Disaster Management Organisation, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), non-governmental organisations and other development partners from ECOWAS and Australia.

Participants first discussed findings of a research survey carried out from April and August this year covering the northern part of Ghana, the East Coast and Accra Metropolis.

It sought to find out Ghana’s vulnerability rate in the era of climatic change and measures that could be adopted to mitigate disasters as floods, droughts, deforestation, and desertification, among other topics.

Dr Emmanuel Tachie-Mensah, Senior Research Officer, EPA who led a team of researchers to undertake the research said issues like floods and rainstorm had become major disasters that affected most part of the country, especially Accra as wells as extreme temperatures of about 40 degree Celsius occurring throughout the year.

He said changes in rainfall patterns, water scarcity, food insecurity, poverty and soil erosion were identified as major issues that would confront Ghana in the wake of climate change effects.

Mr William Billy Williams, Australian High Commissioner, said the research undertaken in Ghana was being sponsored by Australian government under a project being replicated in Senegal, Nigeria and Cape Verde to respond to and manage disasters.

He said the project entitled: “Facilitating Enhanced Organisation Responsiveness for Effective West African Risk Reduction,” (FOREWARN) was being implemented through a partnership with ECOWAS, the Humanitarian Futures Programme at King’s College in London and DARA, a Spanish-based independent humanitarian aid organisation.

He said Australia like any other country had also experienced a number of serious disasters like floods, fires and cyclone and had manage put up various interventions including local people volunteers programme to mitigate such disasters.

He said the Australia is therefore supporting ECOWAS countries with two million Australian dollars under a two- year disaster risk reduction project, which started in June 2010.

“I am pleased that Australia now has an opportunity to share our expertise in disaster prediction and management with counterparts in West Africa.

“I hope that the rains being provided to officials to predict and manage disaster will enable many lives to be saved in future.”

Source: GNA