Ready, willing and Abel

 NATIONAL Planning Minister Charles Abel, who is the MP for Alotau, Milne Bay, is being proactive to the plight of people in his province affected by Cylone Ita. 

He has pledged to allocate K100,000 or one per cent of his District Services Improvement Programme funds to help victims of natural disasters like tropical cyclones. 

Abel said during a phone-a-thon conducted by NBC Radio Milne Bay over the weekend that he would ask his fellow MPs from the province to pledge similar amounts that would go to a disaster fund. 

The fundraising initiative raised K19,000 to go towards providing immediate relief for the people on the islands in the province’s north. 

The amount pledged by the people was noteworthy – K430,000. 

Abel told listeners that he was hopeful his colleagues in Esa’ala MP and Minister for Civil Aviation Davis Steven; Kiriwina MP and Minister for Forest and Climate Change Douglas Tomuriesa; Samarai Mururua MP and Deputy Speaker for Parliament Gordon Wesley and Milne Bay Governor Titus Philemon would contribute the money from their annual district development funds. 

Abel said if all MPs chipped in the money, then the province would have K500,000 a year set aside for emergencies and disaster relief. 

Parliamentarians are presently given K10 million for their DSIP funds annually and the use of this money is largely discretionary. So Abel’s appeal to his brother MPs is not unreasonable, in fact it is very doable. 

This is a significant amount that would be on hand to get food and supplies to people in dire need when they needed it the most. 

It would quicken response times. This is the kind of planning and foresight that Papua New Guineans, especially those in positions of responsibility and power (public office) need to practice more of rather than to react to sit­uations and scramble to raise money and get logistics organised to address large scale problems when they arise. 

One of the common trends we see is that because there is no money set aside for this purpose, when disaster strikes funding is usually pulled from other available areas such for health, infrastructure development, education, projects and the like and this invariably throws the provincial budget out of kilter. 

Would it not be better to commit money for the specific purpose of disaster relief and have it ready to use when the need arises? 

Abel said because of the unpredictable changes to weather patterns, PNG could expect increasing and more serious occurrences of cyclones, tidal surges, tsunamis, droughts and fluctuations in temperatures that could wreak havoc in communities, the provincial government and MPs had to have a plan and course of action ready to tackle the problems that arose. 

“We need to improve our response system, especially our disaster preparedness as we go into the future. We must put money aside so when a disaster happens, we can immediately access these funds to help the people affected instead of waiting for money to come,” Abel said. 

The rational is simple and yet if we ask many MPs whether they have this kind of fund set up, many of them would either say it was firstly the provincial government and state’s responsibility and theirs to only help where and when they could. 

There should be nothing more compelling for a public official to act then when the lives and property of his or her constituents are threatened. 

The next logical step for MPs and their district offices to take is to have a disaster section to coordinate relief efforts with state and provincial authorities. In many instances this helps greatly in the rush to reach affected people hours and days after the calamity hits. 

Abel is only shoring up for the future and many of his fellow MPs around the country would be well advised to follow his example. 

The only thing that may hinder this is whether they see it as a priority, putting money away for disasters that may strike tomorrow, next month or years from now. But really that is the essence of disaster planning and management. 

We need to be prepared and ready to move when the weather or nature turns on the communities within your electorate, province, region and country. 

It is not a matter of if but when so it certainly pays to be prepared.