Asik: Preparing for disasters a priority

By BOSORINA ROBBY
PAPUA New Guinea is subject to various natural hazards with varying magnitude, frequency and locality, according to a government minister.
And with climate change, they can severely constrain economic growth, said Ronald Asik, the vice- minister Forests and Office of Climate Change and Development.
“Thus preparedness is the government’s priority,” he said.
Asik was speaking at the signing of a grant agreement between the World Bank and the government for US$1.7 million (K3.7 million). It is to finance a project under the World Bank’s global facility for disaster reduction and recovery for disaster risk management, plus a climate change adaptation project in agriculture.
He said the funds would minimise the impact of climate change and natural disasters in the agriculture sector by designing appropriate resilience and adaptation measures.
He said the objective was to better understand the risks and overall impact within the agriculture sector.
“This funding is very timely as the majority of the country’s population live off the land for their survival and about a third of PNG’s GDP is composed of the agriculture sector which remains vulnerable to the impacts of climate change,” he said.
He said coastal and inland flooding damaged export and subsistence food crops plus the transportation infrastructure needed to bring goods to the market, cutting off farmers from their sources of income.
“Severe and prolonged drought conditions threaten food and water security as well,” he said.
The project will be coordinated by the Office of climate change and development on behalf of the government in co-ordination with the National Disaster Centre.
The implementing partner will be the department of Agriculture and Livestock.