Accra, June 28, GNA - Nii Armah Ashietey, Greater Accra Regional Minister on Tuesday stressed the need to design a more proactive approach towards disaster management in the country.

He said disasters over the years had been managed by responses, which were counter-productive because lives that could have been saved were lost. Nii Ashietey made the call when inaugurating a 30-member Greater Accra Regional Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation in Accra.

The platform is to adopt better approach to community mobilisation and networking to address disaster risk reduction goals through a coordinated participation and interactive process of actors at the local government level.

Nii Ashietey stated that they would be responsible for designing a disaster risk development approach that would identify, assess and reduce the risk of disasters in the country.

"It is aimed at reducing socio-economic vulnerabilities to disasters as well as dealing with environmental and other hazards that trigger them," he said.

According to Nii Ashietey available statistics indicated that "a cedi invested today in disaster risk reduction saves four cedis or more in the future cost of relief and rehabilitation."

He said to be desirous about disaster management there was the need to design more coherent policies, programmes and conduct research into why efforts in the past had not produced the desired results.

Nii Ashietey urged members of the Platform to collaborate and corporate effectively to build a disaster resilient society that could survive in the face of extreme disasters.

Mr Kofi Portuphy, National Coordinator of National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), said activities of the platform were in accordance with the United Nations to capacitate the communities with knowledge about the risk they lived in and how best they could manage it.

He said activities of the Platform were essential in helping NADMO to debate and to re-direct its activities in the Region to help to manage disasters.

Mr Portuphy stated that they were responsible for critically educating people in the country to know about risk management, generate funds and help NADMO in its advocacy programmes in the Region.

He urged them to be bold, elegant and always tell the truth in their operations in reducing the risk of disaster in the Region.

Reverend Dr Amoo Darko, Member of the Council of State and Chairman of the National Platform said over the years' many people had been affected by disasters therefore it was important to design measures to prevent them rather than reduce them.

He noted that disaster management was a national, regional and district issue and all must show concern to reduce the risk inherent in disasters.