Kadovar councillors need praise

THE two councillors of Kadovar Island in East Sepik must be commended for their efforts when organising the evacuation of children, women and men
since the volcanic eruption on Friday.
Councillors Stanley and Moses organised the evacuation without any support from outside as Kadovar is about a three-hour boat ride from Wewak.
Imagine if they had decided to send a boat to Wewak for help; it would have been a six-to-seven-hour return trip, depending on the weather.
The next question is, would the disaster office in Wewak have had the resources readily available to respond immediately?
There is no mobile phone coverage at Kadovar or at the surrounding Schouten Islands group, of which Kadovar is the smallest of the group’s six islands.
Kadovar is not listed in the
catalogue of the world’s active volcanoes.
The first recorded sighting by Europeans of Kadovar Island was by the Spanish navigator Inigo Ortiz de Retes on July 21, 1545, when on board of the carrack San Juan and returning from Tidore to New Spain.
Smoke was reported from the volcano which could have indicated an eruption in 1700. There were further indications of possible imminent eruptions in 1976 and 1981.
Natural disasters – be it flood, volcanic eruptions or earthquakes – are unpredictable and inevitable and it is more cost-effective to be prepared than to deal with the damage, death and rebuilding later.
The argument that we don’t have enough funds or resources to put into disaster preparedness is unacceptable.
Disasters not only cost lives, they also have a severe socio-economic impact on the country.
It has always been a reactive response – everyone reacts and responds after a disaster has struck.
Disaster officers should prepare beforehand in order to tackle hardships when disaster strikes.
They must be prepared before a disaster strikes, during the disaster and afterwards.
With this, we all have a duty to do our part in preparing for the worst – be it more effective flood control, reduction of trash dumping or moving people to safer ground.
If the agency tasked with handling these emergency situations is under-funded and under-equipped then we can expect to see more people suffer.
It will be a significant undertaking for the government.
If the disaster response capacity of every province is
assessed, they may well be found wanting. Disaster response is the second phase of the disaster management cycle.
The cycle consists of a number of elements such as warning and evacuation, search and rescue, providing immediate assistance, assessing damage, continuing assistance and the immediate restoration of infrastructure.
Papua New Guinea’s capacity to manage its disasters is heavily reliant on outside help, particularly from Australia.
This country will continue to be at the mercy of nature and suffer major losses of life and property until it can build up its own capacity to meet those challenges.
Otherwise, the national disaster centre will only be managing when a disaster strikes.