BY LORETTA B MANELE
The Permanent Secretary (PS) of the Ministry of Environment, Climate Change, Disaster Management & Meteorology (MECDM), David Hiba Hiriasia said as long there is a cancellation of the tropical cyclone warning, they will mobile response teams to affected communities.
He was responding to a question asked by Island Sun yesterday on when they will send teams to carry out assessment in affected communities that have felt the impact of Tropical Cyclone Maila.
Hiriasia said the main issue they are looking at is the situation of the weather.
“As long as there is a cancellation of tropical cyclone warning, then we will mobilise response teams and the plan is to do that as soon as possible.
“The weather situation still restricts the movement to the affected areas,” he said.
The Permanent Secretary also said that in terms of response, it will not only be from the national level.
“Our first responders will be from the Provincial Emergency Operations Centers,” he said.
Hiriasia said all emergency operations centres have been activated last week, emphasising that for them to mobilise teams to do assessments and initial relief would very much depend on the cancellation of the cyclone warning.
Director of the National Disaster Management Office (NDMO), Mr Jonathan Tafiariki also responded to the question, pointing out that the safety of their responders is currently their priority.
Tafiariki pointed out that this is so that when they mobilise, they are assured of the safety of their responders, partners and agencies that will be participating and getting involved in response efforts.
“Safety is our priority and we heavily, entirely depend on the advice of the National Meteorological service to provide that guidance,” he added.
Tafiariki said the National Emergency Operation Centre and the Provincial Emergency Operation Centre are monitoring the situation and they will be the ones providing advice to all their partners through the National Disaster Council’s arrangements.
Island Sun also asked if they would only be focusing on Western Province in terms of the assessment or also include other provinces such as Choiseul, Isabel and Western parts of Guadalcanal.
PS for MECDM, Hiriasia replying to the question, said this will be looked into as per the process of government is to ensure that the initial situation overview is carried out to determine the scale, scope of impacts that will then be put to the councils and the councils will make the decisions on those areas based on the assessments provided by the national disaster operations committee.
He also reiterated that all emergency operation centres have been activated.
“All emergency operation centres have been activated that includes Western, Choiseul, Isabel, Guadalcanal.
“All emergency operation centres in the country have been activated and have been gathering information from communities, people and have been feeding the national emergency operations centre with information to do planning for early response,” he said.
Director of NDMO, Tafiariki in his response to this question said they already have an estimate of the scale of impact.
“We have initial knowledge of which province is mostly affected.
“As we are aware, mostly Western, Choiseul, Isabel and other parts of Guadalcanal and Central Province. So, we have an idea of the extent of the impact.
“I think the initial assessment is to verify reports that we already have,” he said.
Both Mr Hiriasia and Mr Tafiariki prior to answering these questions were present during Prime Minister Jeremiah Manele’s press conference yesterday.
The Prime Minister announced that government has activated national disaster response arrangements under the National Disaster Management Plan 2018 and Cabinet earlier yesterday approved an initial allocation of SBD 10 million dollars that will go towards emergency relief efforts and supplies.
Photo credit: Loretta B Manele
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