Maravi

Envoy calls for long-term disaster prevention, management plan

Envoy calls for long-term disaster prevention, management plan
By Maluba Jere
Tuesday February 12, 2008 [03:00]

NETHERLANDS ambassador to Zambia Eduard Middeldorp has asked the government to develop a national long-term disaster prevention and management plan to address structural issues that exacerbate the impacts of natural calamities. In an interview, ambassador Middeldorp said the embassy was ready to offer aid to flood victims as long as the government gave detailed information on its concrete plans on how such assistance would be utilised.

“The embassy stands ready to render assistance in one form or another, in the spirit of longstanding partnership for development and wellbeing of the Zambian people,” he said.

“As much as we appreciate the government’s short-term efforts to address the effects of floods, the embassy would emphasise the need to develop a national long-term disaster prevention and management plan to address structural issues that exacerbate the impacts of natural calamities.”

Meanwhile, Ambassador Middeldorp said his government would gradually reduce aid to Zambia’s health sector in order to refocus on areas requiring more funds.

He said the move was in line with the division of labour the co-operating partners agreed upon in the Joint Assistance Strategy for Zambia (JASZ).

He said that by 2011 their annual aid to the health sector would stand at 6.5 million Euros (about K35.6 billion).

“This is not to say that we are cutting our aid completely. What this means is that we are going to divert the funds to other sectors identified as being in need of more aid,” he said.

And Ambassador Middeldorp advised the Zambian government to consider presenting the national budget earlier to avoid huge sums of money being left unspent.

“The budget speech is presented late and this has to change. They could have the budget presented in October and people start discussing it in November and then the executing agencies start disbursing funds on time. This way, there won’t be too much money left unspent,” he said.

He also urged the government to involve the private sector in infrastructure development if high standards were to be maintained.

Labels: DISASTER MANAGEMENT, FLOODS

posted by MrK @ 3:52 AM