Information Campaign for Disaster Risk Management launched

Feb 08, 2014 News

The Civil Defence Commission of Guyana (CDC) in association with the International Development Bank (IDB) has launched a National Public Education and Information Campaign on Disaster Risk Management, (DRM) targeting school children as well as adults.
Deputy Director General of the CDC Colonel Francis Abraham in his opening remarks said the DRM information campaign is intended to educate the Guyanese populace towards adopting a different attitude towards reducing countries’ vulnerabilities to risks, while allowing for faster responses to impacts.

Members as- From Left Deputy Chief Education Officer Donna Chapman, CDC Director General retired Colonel Chabilall Ramsarup, Communications Consultant Eunice Bent.

He said that it is a fact that disasters hurt poor and vulnerable persons the most and “unfortunately more than one third of the world’s poor live in multi hazard zones and obviously climate change will increase the danger of extreme weather…we have already began to experience that phenomenon in Guyana.” The 2005 flood was a wakeup call for Guyana that affected the lives and economic viability of Guyana significantly, said Abraham.
Abraham said that since the floods, Guyana embraced a risk management structure and with “non reimbursable technical corporation” from the IDB was aided with a disaster plan for the country.
He emphasized that the public information and educational programmes are an integral part of the DRM plan.
Eunice Bent, Communications Consultant from Jamaica with expertise in environmental solutions whose company was contracted in designing DRM policy in Guyana said she was tasked with crafting a campaign to address education and information on climate and weather conditions with respect to DRM and develop base materials to get a better understanding on the risks of climate change and how to reduce and take active measures to keep the public safe.
Bent expressed that global warming and climate change will affect how we build and look at our communities.
She said that from the research that was conducted in Guyana, not many persons are aware of the problems associated with climate and weather changes and that a lot of persons felt that Government is solely responsible for Disaster Risk Management.
Bent stressed that change will come only when everyone participates and said that partnerships with the private sector and government is important since leadership is necessary to share costs and responsibility for implementation so that the country can be prepared for disasters.
The consultant expressed that young children are integral to making sure that the message is continued generationally.
It is for that reason the organizers of the event had in their presence an audience of over 180 students, accompanied by 60 teachers from 67 schools across Region 3 and 4, at the launching yesterday.
Deputy Chief Education Officer Donna Chapman said that DRM is of utmost importance within the context of natural disasters. She was vocal about the importance of responsibility being shared and not limited to government. She voiced her support to incorporating DRM in the school curriculum and pledged the support of her ministry in getting the message across, utilizing the arts such as debating, elocution, skits and drama.
Chapman also stressed the need for adults and children more so to be involved since she said they (children) would be more susceptible to influence from their teachers, who she noted are the role models for children.
In his feature address Director General of the CDC Chabilall Ramsarup asserted that we “can’t stop the rain from falling but we can prevent or minimize flooding,” hence the need to focus on disaster risk reduction. Speaking on the 2005 floods, he said the loss of lives, as well as the economic loss to the country has been significant. He mentioned that that flooding incident affected 62 percent of Guyana’s population and 60 percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). He cited from an ECLAC report (United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean) which stated that it would take Guyana ten years to recover from the floods.
The CDC Director General posited that because of the structural works undertaken by the NDIA (National Drainage and Irrigation Authority), the River and Sea Defence, and the administrative regions themselves, Guyana has not seen floods as significant since. He said that CDC was non functional during the 2005/2006 floods but is now working on the non structural end of the spectrum to provide support and build resilience in citizens.
He said a number of plans and polices have been drafted with the help of other organizations such as the IDB and the UNDP (United Nations Development Project). Apart from working at the national level, work is now ongoing at the regional and community levels and they “have drafted regional disaster plans for all the ten Regions in Guyana,” he said.
Ramsarup outlined that the Alternative Emergency Center is being completed and is hopeful that it will be handed over to the CDC in less than two months.
According to the CDC Director General, the objectives of the information campaign is twofold “firstly by providing information to produce behavioral change in building resilience in ourselves, our community, our churches in Guyana and secondly, to understand the whole phenomenon of climate change and what effects it will have on our country.”
According to the Director General the tools used to get the DRM message across would be done through short infomercials, audio advertisements for radio, a ten minute documentary for television as well as newsletters, drama and debates and educational and elocution competitions,
He said that for the program to be successful there must be collaboration between the Government Ministries, NGO’s (Non Governmental Organizations) and the media.
Ramsarup outlined that “disasters is everybody’s business [and] will not strike at your neighbours’ doors and leave yours.”