By Damion Mitchell, Staff ReporterTHE OFFICE of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM) is positioning itself to better respond to emergencies, says acting director, Paul Saunders. Speaking at a press conference at the ODPEM offices on Camp Road in Kingston yesterday, Mr. Saunders said that under the Comprehensive Disaster Management (CDM) programme, which is being introduced in the Caribbean, several strategies would be adopted in Jamaica.
Among them, he said, were improvements to ODPEM's research and databank capability, the enactment of legislation to enhance the adoption of the CDM, and the equipping of ODPEM to effect better disaster management.
But, according to Mr. Saunders, it was critically important for all disaster response agencies to acknowledge their responsibilities in this process. At a workshop in April of this year, disaster agencies drafted a framework of mitigation policies and selected a committee to further develop these policies.
DRAFT FOR SCRUTINY
Mr. Saunders said that next week ODPEM will meet with its private sector partners to review the draft, in order to make it available for further scrutiny to arrive at a final draft to be presented to Cabinet for approval by November. "The policy is a major step in our development," said Mr. Saunders. He pointed out that it captures the concerns related to disasters and was accompanied by an action plan to ensure measures to reduce the impact of disaster due to hazards.
"Gone are the days when we were focusing on relief and res-ponse, we are moving towards loss reduction, prevention and (proper) mitigation," he said.
The acting director-general said the process, which has already started, included improvements to its information technology capabilities. The agency now has an electronic recording system to communicate with all the parish disaster committees and effect an emergency response.
, as well as a geographic information system and a satellite imagery system, which Mr. Saunders said have significantly enhanced the agency's shelter management and evacuation planning capacities.
Its web site will be relaunched to include a live satellite imagery of the weather conditions affecting the island and will also provide links to other sites.
