By Steve Chirombo

Dedza, December 3, Mana: Disaster Risk Management (DRM) committee under Dedza District Council has been urged to make the best use of the Emergency Operating Centre (EOC) in the district.

Deputy Director Responsible for Preparedness in the Department of Disaster and Management Affairs (DoDMA), Fedson Chikuse, made the call Monday during the training with members of the committee.

According to Chikuse, the training had four key components; to enable members use the facility, to understand its Standard Operating Procedures (SOP), how to care for the facility and also to remind one another issues of disasters in 2024/2025 season following a seasonal forecast of normal to above normal rains.

“We also wanted to remind members that this year we may have disasters in Dedza and, therefore, they need to be ready. We encouraged them to strengthen the cluster system so that they have better coordination of humanitarian activities,” said Chikuse.

He said Dedza is one of the disaster-prone districts because one side of it is in the lower area.

“And also, since we are going to have a lot of rains, we want to remind people of Dedza to keep their houses strong, look out for the advisories which are normally announced through radios or other media and make use of the information,” he pointed out.

Project Coordinator for the Modernized Climate Information and Early Warning Systems (M-CLIMES) Project, Ted Nyekanyaka, said it is their aim, with support from the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), to ensure districts that experience more disasters have spaces where district stakeholders would come together to discuss, plan and respond to various disasters.

“So, Dedza was one of our target districts where we installed this fabricated EOC. However, since we installed it, the DRMC was not trained on the SOPs of the structure and also on how to take care of it,” said Nyekanyeka

He said it was impressive to note that Dedza DRMC has representatives from various departments and offices describing the session as successful.

“I would like to encourage the district team, especially the DRMC, to ensure that there is safety for this structure as you see we do have materials here and also inside. In addition to that we want this centre to be where disaster work should be well coordinated,” he added.

Director of Planning and Development for Dedza District Council, Macpherson Mwakhwawa, described the training as timely saying rainy season is fast approaching.

“So, like in the previous years, Dedza is among districts that are faced with rainy-induced disasters such as strong winds that have blown off roofs, and in certain circumstances houses have collapsed due to heavy rains as well as flooding. So, the orientation is valuable because it provided us with relevant information on how we can make use of the EOC to prepare ourselves for disasters,” said Mwakhwawa.

He said the council, together with other players, will make sure that the facility is taken care of for it to stay long in the provision of necessary environment for management of disasters in the district.