Needs of disaster mitigation plan in Africa.....

Malawi remains vulnerable to natural disasters, says relief official
Edited by: Saudi Ali  21.10.2009

Malawi is one of the countries in Africa that continues to face different kinds of natural disasters like floods and dry spells, the Malawi Commissioner for Disaster Preparedness Lilian Ng’oma said here Wednesday.
Speaking during a Disaster Preparedness and Risk Reduction meeting for south-west Indian Ocean region on Wednesday in the capital Lilongwe, she said when such disasters occur in developing countries like Malawi, they bring back development gains which were made over the years.

She adds that disasters bring untold suffering and misery to people if countries are not prepared. As such we need to categorize the action plan to cope with the future disaster.
One of the categories is preparedness, response, solution and reinstatement or recovery as this will boost back the development and economics sector.
She said regional initiatives implemented in such meetings help governments to share ideas and focus on knowledge management and regional network in disaster preparedness and risk reduction.
“These initiatives are helpful because countries may have different experiences and capacities for disaster risk reduction, mitigation and indeed emergency response hence we can share ideas,” she observed.
Currently, she said, Malawi has embarked on a process that will make it better prepared to handle disasters which include development of interim national guidelines to disaster management policy and development of disaster risk reduction framework.

Countries participating in the meeting include Comoros, Madagascar, Mozambique and the host Malawi.–APA