Minister of State, Dawn Hastings-Williams along with Director General of the Ministry of the Presidency, Joseph Harmon and Director General of the Civil Defence Commission (CDC), Lieutenant Colonel Kester Craig yesterday turned the sod for the construction of a $96M Regional Disaster Management Centre in Lethem.
A release from the Ministry of the Presidency said that Hastings-Williams, who has responsibility for disaster risk management in Guyana and within whose purview the CDC comes, said the Centre will be the first of its kind in Guyana. Others, she said, will be opened in Barima-Waini (Region One); Cuyuni-Mazaruni (Region Seven) and Potaro-Siparuni (Region Eight). This multipurpose building would provide shelter for both men and women, encompass a warehouse, training facility, conference room and office space.
“The Government is committed to building similar facilities to ensure these remote regions can effectively respond to emergencies and disasters on their own. The Regional Centre will house a warehouse to pre-position and stockpile relief supplies, a shelter to accommodate displaced persons, a training facility and offices for emergency personnel. The facility is expected to increase the efficiency of emergency response operations in the region by reducing the cost and time for shuttling relief supplies from Georgetown into the region. The facility will allow for items to be sourced within the region for stocking the warehouse, which is anticipated to have a positive spill-over effect on the local economy. Additionally, the shelter facility will boost the region’s capacity to provide housing for residents displaced during flooding. The offices and training facilities will improve preparedness measures such as capacity building,” she said.
The Director General of the CDC said that the $96M represents the largest direct disaster response capacity investment by the Government in the history of Guyana.
“Over the last few years the Commission and its volunteers worked with several communities across the country implementing Community-Based Disaster Risk Management systems and training community members in damage assessment, search and rescue and first aid, just to mention a few. The Commission has also commenced works at the municipality and Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) levels and has thus far completed risk assessments and plans in several municipalities and NDCs that will soon be implemented. Notwithstanding the works done at those levels, the bulk of the advancement in disaster risk management has been implemented at the Regional level as nine of the Ten Administrative Regions now have completed Disaster Risk Management Mechanisms,” Craig said.
The release said that Councillor of the Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo Regional Democratic Council (RDC), Sandra Rafino welcomed the initiative, noting that the lives of the residents will be improved with the construction of the facility.
