DEO Chairman: Access to finance critical

The District Emergency Organisation (DEO) which operates as the volunteer arm of the Department of Emergency Management, must have access to finance. That’s the view of Chairman of the St. James Central DEO, Selwyn Brooks.

Delivering the Chairman’s Report during the Annual General Meeting (AGM) at Queen’s College on Sunday evening, he explained that the Caribbean region will now more than before, have to be

prepared for potential hazards and the increasing intensity which will seriously affect the varied populations.

He recalled that over the last three years there has been an increase in floods and flash floods; an increase and intensity of storms and hurricanes; magnitude of several earthquakes; the likelihood of drought; and rise in temperatures, landslides, fires, and volcanic activity.

“Therefore, vulnerability will increase whether it be our vulnerable locations, people or the level of risk associated with the increased associated activity. And if we agree that when disaster strikes small islands like ours, many families, communities can be affected with potential loss of life, dislocation and social chaos.”

Brooks therefore stressed that it is very important that disaster preparedness and management agencies, be it national or community based, improved their effectiveness, given the related cost associated with the scale of preparedness, response and recovery and rehabilitation efforts, whether short, medium or long-term.

“I hereby continue to express the view that the DEOs across this country therefore must have access to finance that can establish structural people/community centred mitigative responses and recovery processes and initiatives inclusive of the associated training.”

“The establishment of the business and private sector, governmental stakeholder partnerships which can make use of the available expertise, protocols and resources. So that we can conduct regular drills and simulations to test and identify those gaps that exist, which are all vital to achieving accepting levels so desperately needed,” the Chairman said. (TL)