THE National Disaster Centre’s (NDC) Acting Director Lusete Mana has urged provincial disaster coordinators not to work in isolation but communicate with their provincial administrators and the national centre.
He made the call last week at the closing of a week-long provincial disaster coordinators’ conference in Port Moresby.
Mana told the provincial disaster coordinators to work with administrators and the national centre on issues related to disaster, emergency and imminent droughts.
He said two key issues raised at the conference were financial and manpower constraints.
Mana said the two same issues are always raised during conferences however, solutions should be found to address the issues.
“The challenge is on us to send situation reports and keep in constant communication with our provincial administrators,” he said.
“We cannot work in isolation – we must have good communication and strengthen provincial administrators, give them updates and reports to receive a good budgetary support.
“The roaming days are over.
“Now it is time for real business. We will not waste time.
“We have to go back and set our targets right.”
He thanked the United Nations Development Programme for their support in hosting the conference.
Former acting director Martin Mose said the recent conference was the best r he had attended, while the Bougainville chief secretary Esther Usurup described the conference as a ‘fantastic time of learning’.
Usurup said provincial disaster coordinators should have a military mindset so they can manage disasters in their provinces.
The National Disaster Centre Office, which used to be under the office of Provincial and Local Level Governments is now under the Defence Department.
Twenty-two provincial disaster coordinators attended the week-long conference with the objective of discussing how they could strengthen their local capacities to disaster risk reduction in line with the Government’s goal to “leave no one behind”.
An update of the climate outlook and drought condition was distributed at the conference in the report PNG Drought Response and Recovery Plan 2023 to 2024.
The National Disaster Corporate Plan 2023-2024 was distributed to the provincial coordinators.
The National Maritime Safety Authority’s Captain Krzyszt (Kris) Orlowski led discussions on important issues of response capabilities and preparedness to potential disasters, including risk and hazard mapping, disaster database and information systems.
