Islands yet to receive the necessary equipment and resources for disaster recovery and response operations will be equipped over the next four years, Chief Executive Officer of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) Hisan Hassan has said.
One of the primary mandates of the NDMA is to build resilient communities and enhance their capacity to withstand both natural and man-made disasters. Citing this mandate in an interview with the 'Raajje Miadhu' programme of PSM News, Hassan explained that the NDMA is actively conducting disaster risk reduction programmes and forming emergency response teams on the outer islands. These initiatives are of paramount importance to the NDMA, he added.
Hassan underscored the importance of identifying potential disasters, such as tidal surges and flooding, and implementing precautionary measures. According to him, NDMA has launched a comprehensive programme to provide water pumps to islands, aiming to bolster local council and community-level responses to flooding-related disasters. Islands lacking pumps and other essential disaster recovery and response equipment would receive the necessary resources within the next four years, he assured.
"The objective is to ensure that the response teams established on the islands can promptly attend to disaster scenes and initiate risk reduction efforts before national teams are deployed, thereby mitigating potential damage," Hassan stated.
Hassan also observed that awareness of disaster risk reduction has been on the rise in the outer islands. Several islands have approached the NDMA for assistance in developing disaster risk reduction plans and seeking technical expertise, he said.
He reassured that the NDMA's top priority is to minimise property damage during disasters and save lives. As part of an agreement with the Japanese government, according to Hassan, the NDMA is coordinating the donation of firefighting equipment to the Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF) Fire and Rescue Service. He added that the first shipment of this equipment, including four fire trucks and 40 pumps, is expected to arrive in the Maldives in September this year.