By  Margaret Burke

PREPARING for any form of disaster, natural or unnatural is never something that people would feel good doing. Though Guyana is a highly religious community, regardless of what else the people of the country practice, there are clear indications that most, if not all of the people, are uncomfortable addressing the topic of disaster preparedness… they prefer to believe that, ‘with God in-charge, ‘it’ will not happen’, even in spite of the 2005 floods.

The Public Speaks

According to one person from the Essequibo Coast, who was interviewed by the Guyana Chronicle and preferred to remain anonymous, “Guyana is a blessed country, we are people with religious freedom and we pray a lot. Don’t matter how some people behave, we are blessed and even though we are below sea level and can get floods, God would protect and take care of us. We don’t need to be afraid. I am a Christian and I am not afraid, however, God expects us to use wisdom and be always prepared – and not be like the five foolish virgins who did not get oil in their lamps. We must be prepared, but we must trust God also, because regardless of how much we are prepared, if God’s mercy does not prevail on us, then it might simply be that all of us can be wiped away. I shudder to give it thought… but because of my faith in the Almighty God, I believe it will not happen.”

An active member of one of the municipalities in the Ancient County of  Berbice also told this newspaper that he is very much concerned about the situation of flooding in some of the communities there. “The thing is that while some areas look like rivers when there is flooding, many of the people have gotten so accustomed to what is going on that they seem not to care too much; they don’t know about disaster preparedness and all they would do is complain when they lose a whole lot of livestock, produce from their farms and the like; then they have to start all over again. Since this newspaper has opened up this topic with me I am going to do much more to make my people aware of things they need to do in their homes and other preparatory work they should put in place.”

Here is what some other persons had to say:

Danielle Marshall

“I understand disaster preparedness to mean that people must be prepared, in the event of a disaster, especially floods, which we get a lot in Guyana, but I have not put anything in place as yet. However, I will try to put things in place before anything should happen- some food stuff, my torchlight with batteries, lamp and so on. In the meantime, though, I am trusting that God’s mercy will be extended to this nation of Guyana so that we will not experience another flood like the 2005 or even worse.”

Patricia Smith
“I believe that people need to be prepared financially; that they should have money put away in the event of a flood and many of your things are destroyed by the water….On the other hand, people should be told that they cannot build a house less than five feet from the ground… well, if the water gets so high then we will be in a lot of trouble. At the same time, people who live low should consider building their cupboards over their dressers and not on the floor because if you wake up under water you should not have to worry about all your goods being wet. Also, people should have a medicine press with essential medicines, as well as some canned food stuff, dried peas, and other essential food items such as sugar, salt, rice, old, flour and the like. They must also get drinking water on standby.”

Stephen Rogers

“I experienced the 2005 flood and would not like to have it happen again; it is a serious matter. But I recovered from it quickly because I had made some provision before. And as a taxi driver, I saw so many things that people experienced, I hope to be much more prepared if it should ever happen again.”

Civil Defence Commission working to ensure Guyana’s Disaster Preparedness

Major Kester Craig, CDC’s Deputy Director General

CDC’s Deputy Director General, Major Kester Craig, in an invited comment told the Guyana Chronicle that from May 2015 through May 2017, the CDC has been busy planning and implementing many of its programmes, outlined under the Disaster Risk Management Mechanism in Guyana and stated that much work has already been done in relation to disaster preparedness by the Commission.
Plans for ‘Care facilities’

In 2015 the Civil Defence Commission (CDC), in partnership with UNICEF and the Ministry of Social Protection reviewed, tested and operationalised the Ministry of Social Protection Preparedness and Response Plan. Further, in 2017, an Evacuation Plan, as well as a Checklist were developed and implemented, safety procedures were erected and safety equipment procured and installed at the Mahaica Children’s Home to improve the safety of the home in the case of fire, floods, and other hazards.

An evacuation plan, as well as a checklist, were also designed and handed over to the Ministry to be implemented in the remaining care facilities in the country.

Representatives of the Ministry and the Homes were trained on the use of the safety procedures, as well as evacuation plans.

National Emergency Plans
The CDC has stated that nationally, the Disaster Risk Management (DRM) Structure to manage risk and effectively respond to hazard impacts has been strengthened through a number of initiatives, such as the National Disaster Risk Reduction Coordination Platform (NDRRCP), which was non-functional for several years. This Platform was reviewed and re-activated with an expanded mandate and IS now chaired quarterly by the Minister of State, Joseph Harmon, who has responsibility for DRM.

Two Sub-Committees to the NDRRCP were formed to support and improve the work of the Platform. The Early Warning System Sub-Committee is chaired by the Hydrometeorological Service of the Ministry of Agriculture, and has the overall aim of improving the country’s early warning system in order to improve response time and efforts, reduce fatalities and damage to properties and infrastructure.

Habitat for Humanity Guyana, chairs the Monitoring and Evaluation Sub-Committee, which has responsibility for monitoring and evaluating all disaster risk management activities in the country and make recommendations for improvement.

National Emergency Monitoring System (NEMS)
The Deputy Director General also released information on a National Emergency Monitoring System (NEMS) which was established in 2015, at the Headquarters of the Civil Defence Commission (CDC). This, he said is a 24-hour system that monitors social media, telephones, radio communications and television stations for incidents across the entire country and triggers individual agency responses, and if the need arises, activates the National Emergency Operations Centre for a multi-agency coordinated response.

National Search and Rescue Committee
Further, in 2016, the National Search and Rescue Committee, chaired by the Director General of the CDC, was re-established. This Committee meets monthly and continues to develop plans, policies and standing operations procedures for land, maritime and air search and rescue. The Committee also solicits resources, provide training and conducts exercises for its members and response agencies.

Communities
The CDC, Major Craig pointed out, has been working at the community level in several communities across the country, developing and implementing systems to improve their resilience to the impact of dangers. These systems are necessary since communities are the first to be impacted and it often takes a long time to mobilise external resources. As such, Community Based Disaster Risk Management Systems were established in communities. The systems include risk assessments and mappings of community hazard and vulnerabilities, Community-Based Disaster Risk Management Committees and Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT), as well as the development of Risk Management Plans.

The Deputy Director General said that even as the CDC works towards training community leaders in areas of disaster risk management and emergency responses, the expectation is that they impart the knowledge received to their communities. At the same time, he noted that plans are in the pipeline to do expanded training.

The Regional level
In collaboration with the CDC, the Ministry of Communities has implemented the Regional Disaster Risk Management Systems in six of the 10 Administrative Regions.  According to the CDC, implementation is on-going in three Regions and by the first quarter of 2018, all the Regions will be completed.

These systems are designed to decentralise the management of DRM and to give Regions the tools, training, other relevant resources to manage risk and respond to disasters affecting the Regions, taking into consideration their peculiarities. The CDC states that the completed system includes detailed disaster risk assessments, which outlines the dangers and vulnerabilities affecting each region with associated maps and the development of preparedness and response plans.

Volunteering with CDC
The CDC has also established a Volunteer Corp in an effort to expand the work of the Commission. It commenced with branches in Regions Four, Six and Nine, but by January 2017 it was expanded and there are now volunteers in all ten Regions of Guyana. These volunteers are trained and available to support disaster response, risk reduction and management activities at the community, regional and national levels. The CDC continues to invite volunteers to join and be a part of the work being done.

(mercilinburke2017@gmail.com)