Tamale, Nov. 7, GNA- Alhaji Mustapha Ali Idris, the Northern Regional Minister, has urged the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) to embark on a vigorous education campaign to sensitise the public to be proactive in the management of disasters. He said people were apathetic to disaster situations even when the signals of an impending disaster were clear, thinking that the problem of disaster management was the responsibility of NADMO alone. Alhaji Idris was addressing some staff members and students of the Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College who paid a courtesy call on him in Tamale on Monday.
The students, led by Wing Commander Noble Dzokoto, the Northern sector Team Leader, are from Ghana, Nigeria, Togo, Burkina-Faso and Rwanda and are on a study tour of the region.
Alhaji Idris mentioned the recurrent boat disasters on the Volta Lake and said the people continued to travel on the lake without taking the necessary safety precautions because "they are not adequately educated on the risk involved".
Mr. Chris A. Tanga, the Deputy Northern Regional Coordinator of NADMO, briefed the students on disaster management and attributed the frequent boat disasters on the Volta Lake to the greed of boat owners and operators.
He said the boat owners did not service their boats regularly while the operators would overload the boats adding: "Some of them are habitually drunk".
He suggested the formation of a strong union of boat owners and operators, the creation of a Volta Lake Traffic Police, an efficient communication system, and the regular forecast of the weather situation by the Meteorological Services Department as some of the measures that would make travelling on the lake safer.
Mr. Tanga appealed to the district assemblies to invest in lake transportation by providing more and stronger boats to ferry traders to the various market centres along the lake. 7 Nov 06
