Hardap community informed about disaster risk managementThe establishment of the constituency struct

• LORATO KHOBETSITHE disaster risk management division of the Hardap Regional Council, in collaboration with the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology’s Hardap regional office, hosted a two-week roadshow to raise awareness as well as establish disaster risk management structures in all the constituencies in the region.

The establishment of the constituency structures is to ensure that residents can manage disasters, as well as to reduce the impact of disasters.

The information-sharing sessions were held to target local authority councillors, traditional authorities, farmers unions, non-governmental organisations as well as local inhabitants to establish local authority disaster risk management committees.

“The consultations were very fruitful, and attendance was very good. For instance, we were not only having these consultations with the stakeholders, but we also targeted schools, where we showed them videos about how disasters occur in our various communities, and how they can be prevented,” said Petrus Skrywer, control administrative officer – disaster risk management division at the Hardap Regional Council.

According to him, it is essential to establish the constituency structures as the government will gazette them after documents are sent to the Office of the Prime Minister.

The disaster risk management committees will be tasked to oversee all response and preparedness of the different constituencies whom they are responsible to minimise the impact of disasters.

One of the disasters more prevalent in the Hardap region is fire, occurring naturally, or otherwise as a result of human error.

A family of four lost all their belongings in a fire believed to have been caused when a cellphone was left to charge on a solar panel unattended at MaltahÖhe.

According to homeowner Karlien van Wyk, she forgot to unplug the cellphone charger when she left to go into town, only to come home to find her house engulfed by fire. There was no one at home when the fire started.

In an effort to assist with reducing the impact of disasters such as fires, the MaltahÖhe Village Council recently resolved that the local fire truck should be parked at the firefighter’s home, which is closer to the community, for a quicker response.