MP urges govt to fund disaster office

National, Normal
Source:

The National – Friday, December 3, 2010

MENDI MP Pastor Isaac Joseph has called on the national government to put more funding to the National Disaster Office to deal with natural disasters and emergencies.
Joseph was mourning the death of four people killed by a freak lightning strike in his electorate over the weekend.
He said the provincial government had allocated K20,000 and Mendi district contributed K10,000 and the use of a vehicle towards burial costs.
“I call on the national government to start putting money for national disasters and emergencies. The National Disaster Office is the most underfunded office in the country,” Joseph said.
He said with climate change, the weather patterns were changing, bringing in new diseases such as cholera and a responsible government must prepare for natural disasters and national emergencies.
“In national disasters and emergencies, we must not act on an ad hoc basis operations. The national and provincial disaster offices must be well equipped with equipment, food rations, water, mosquito nets and tents to do the job in saving people’s lives.”
He said a lot of preventable deaths had occurred in past disasters because of the slowness of authorities to mobilise and attend to them at short notice.