Nkoranza (B/A), Oct. 30, GNA -The Brong-Ahafo Regional Secretariat of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) has organized a day's seminar for 60 Disaster Volunteer Group (DVG) members at Nkoranza to discuss effective ways of managing disasters in the communities. The participants were drawn from Nkoranza, Kintampo, Sene and Atebubu districts.

Nana Atta Afena, Regional NADMO Coordinator who addressed the participants appreciated the efforts of the volunteers for their commitment and concern towards disaster control in their communities to promote the development of the nation. Nana Atta-Afena expressed concern about the extent of damage caused the nation by disasters, and saying the Government spends huge sums of money towards disaster management and the rehabilitation of affected victims.

He reminded the volunteers that conflicts, rainstorms, bushfires as well as environmental pollution were all disasters that greatly affect human life, which needed to be managed to promote the living standards of the people.

Mr. Kwame Amporfo-Twumasi, Nkoranza District Chief Executive (DCE) said poverty and ignorance among the people were the main causes of disaster and stressed the need for the volunteers to educate people in their communities on the causes and effects of the menace and how it could be controlled.

Mr. Amporfo-Twumasi said Disaster Volunteer Groups were non-partisan societies hence the participants should not play politics with their activities and urged them to form co-operative societies and register with the banking institutions to receive credit facilities to improve upon their economic activities. Mr. Eugene Asamoah-Ayiw, of NADMO national secretariat, Accra, advised the volunteers to spearhead activities such as clean-up campaigns and environmental sanitation programmes in their communities to prevent the outbreak of communicable diseases. Mr. Asamoah-Ayiw announced that NADMO would recommend hard-working and well-organised groups to the Department of Cooperatives for credit facilities Disaster Volunteer Group members should always look for problems that could lead to disasters in their communities and arrange for their immediate solution before they escalate into uncontrollable situations, he advised.

At a forum the participants complained about lack of fire-fighting implements thus making them face problems in time of combating bushfires in their communities. The volunteers therefore, appealed to DCEs in the four districts to consider their (Volunteers) plight and offer them the needed support to enable them manage disasters in the districts. OCT. 30 04