From Lawal Sa’idu Funtua, Katsina.
The North-West Zonal Coordinator of National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Alhaji Musa Ilallah has observed that disaster management is viewed as a long-term development programme rather than purely in the context of emergency.
Ilallah made the observation yesterday in Katsina, while speaking at the opening ceremony of the 2014 workshop on “Community-managed Early Warning System (CEWS), and building resilience of communities.
He added that the new approach was focused on strengthening community institutions to identify and respond in a timely manner and also plan a long-term preventive and mitigatory action to protect lives, property and environment.
According to him, early warning system reduces vulnerability, by providing individuals and communities with the information they need to act early enough in a timely and appropriate manner to avoid disaster.
He said “Communities need to understand new ways to address a number of risk, including drought, flooding, conflicts and epidemics among others”.
Ilallah noted that since the adoption of the Hyogo framework of action in 2005 increasing attention has been paid on communities’ resilience against disasters, saying that investing in enhancing resilience was very critical in reducing impact of disaster.
The coordinator said the objective of the workshop was to initiate dialogue and discussion about resilience, incubate ideas and projects and inform participants on education, outreach and community exchange projects.
In a remark, the Executive Secretary of Katsina State Emergency Management Agency, Alhaji Hassan Suleiman Rawayau, stressed the commitment of the state government on educating communities on early warning on disaster.
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