New bill to make NADMO resilient
President John Dramani Mahama has disclosed that a new bill is before parliament to empower National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), to be more disaster resilient.
He said the bill would set up a National Disaster Management Fund, and a mechanism to pick up early warning signals.
There would also be a Governing Council, which would be chaired by the Vice President.
The bill would change Act 517 of 1996, which set up NADMO as an institution mandated to manage disasters and other similar emergencies in the country.
President Mahama made this known in Tamale on Thursday in a speech read on his behalf during the national conference of NADMO coordinators which was on the theme: “Investing in disaster risk reduction and national resilience building: the role of NADMO coordinators.”
He said the new bill would also modify the name of the institution to National Disaster Management Service, build the capacities of the employees and improve their conditions of service to make them deliver on their mandate.
The two-day conference was attended by all regional coordinators of NADMO, chiefs from some part of the country, the Parliamentary Select Committee on the Interior and some ministers of state and development partners.
President Mahama charged the NADMO Coordinator to work with the Ministry of the Interior and the Local Government Ministry to ensure that all Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies advance funds and other resources to the organisation for disaster management issues.
Mr Kofi Portuphy, National Coordinator of NADMO said the organisation is financially constraint.
He said since 2010, NADMO has been struggling for GH¢70 million to rebuild structures destroyed by disaster.
Mr Portuphy called for the main streaming of disaster risk reduction management issues into national development planning to strengthen it to deal with disasters.
He appealed to government to empower NADMO with emergency accreditation powers to be able to deal with institutions and individuals who deliberately cause disasters.
Mr Bede Ziedeng, Northern Regional Minister said rain storm in March this year, affected 21 districts in the region resulting in eight deaths, destroying 44 schools and affecting more than 34,000 persons.
He expressed worry that NADMO had since not fund the needed capital to put the affected persons back to their normal standard of living.
Mr Ziedeng advised NADMO to pre-empt disasters before they occur.
Source: GNA