WHP hosts disaster readiness meeting

WESTERN Highlands will host the 5th annual National Disaster Coordinators’ conference this week at the Highlander Hotel.
According to the acting director of the National Disaster Centre (NDC), Martin Mose, the hosting of the conference was the initiative of the NDC to bring in all the provincial administrators and provincial disaster coordinators together to learn and share their experiences of managing and reducing disaster risk in their respective provinces.
He said the event was an annual event but, unfortunately, it had been put on hold for the last two years due to uncontrolled circumstances.
Mose said, this time, the NDC, in conjunction with the United Nations Development Program me (UNDP), was happy to host the conference this year in Mt Hagen.
During the conference, the PDCs will outline disaster operations in their respective provinces, outlining their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats and their future plans.
He said each PDC must show what had been applied since 2007 and future plans on countermeasures prior to, during and  after  a disaster.
PDCs are asked to  indicate who had been the lead agency or support agency doing up activity plans and resourcing their activities during the disaster periods.
The theme for this year is  “Mainstreaming disaster risk management at all levels of government” with more than 60 participants expected to attend the conference.
Minister for Inter Government Relations Job Pomat and Western Highlands Governor Tom Olga are expected to officiate at the opening today.
Meanwhile, Western Highlands disaster coordinator Nop Amban said conference preparations were well underway with the province having plenty to share as it had been hard hit by various natural disasters last year.