Dr. Seyni Salack, the Regional Thematic Coordinator for the West African Science Service Centre on Climate Change, Adaptation and Land Use (WASCAL), has advocated a comprehensive disaster-related information Management System for Ghana.
He said an observation by the Center after an engagement with State institutions in Ghana revealed a disjointed and individualised approach in communicating disaster-related issues, particularly early warnings of prospective disasters.
Dr. Salack was speaking during a training organised by WASCAL to enhance Ghana’s disaster Management System and climate change response.
The event is aimed at training personnel from relevant institutions in the disaster management ecosystem in Ghana to prepare for, prevent, and mitigate the impact of climate-related disasters in the country.
The five-day training programme will also enable the institutions to harmonise information and data collection and develop people-centred and problem-solving strategies in disaster management.
The part
icipants were drawn from the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), the Ghana Meteorological Agency, the Ghana Hydrological Authority, and representatives from the Ghana Journalist Association.
‘I believe that the entire African system, particularly West Africa, will be placed in a grey zone. When it comes to climatic calamities, we are neither bad nor good,’ he said.
He said presently, what they had seen in Ghana was that there were a lot of initiatives patched here and there that needed to be linked up.
‘One of the recommendations, which is primarily aimed at Ghana, is to bring together the existing sub-systems and put the fundamentals of disaster risk management together,’ he said.
He said by the end of the training programme, he expressed the hope to have a unified Ghana early warning system and an anticipatory action framework for disaster risk management.
The Coordinator said Meteorological Department, NADMO and Hydo Services must speak together so that they could seamlessly convey one
message.
He said the harmonisation of disaster information systems was crucial in establishing credibility in early warnings since all the relevant agencies had been engaged.
Professor Emmanuel Wendsoryré Ramdé, the Executive Director for WASCAL, advocated a multi-disciplinary approach between State institutions, academia, and civil society organisations (CSOs) to address climate-induced disasters in Ghana.
He said the training programme reflected one of WASCAL’s priority areas, which included the capacity building of State institutions in disaster management systems.
Mrs. Charlotte Norman, the Director for Climate Change Adaptation at NADMO, said early warnings were key to mitigating the impact of climate-related disasters.
The training programme, she noted, would equip the relevant agencies on how to improve early warnings and information systems on disasters.
Source: Ghana News Agency