Accra, Sept. 26, GNA - The National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) has established climate change adaptation to reduce effects of disasters on pilot basis in five districts in the country. Under the scheme, structures such as bridges, houses, roads, markets, schools and hospitals located in disaster prone areas, would be relocated t= o safer places to achieve a comprehensive goal of disaster risk reduction and in a manner that would not affect activities in the community. The areas are Tumu in Sissala East District, Walewale in West Mamprusi District, Fanteakwa District, Enchi in Aowin-Suaman District and Keta in Keta Municipality.

Mr Kofi Portuphy, National Coordinator of NADMO, announced at the opening session of a workshop on National Action Plan on Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation for Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) in Accra on Monday. It was to educate the participants more on their key role to help to reduce disasters in their respective districts. Mr Portuphy identified the need to coordinate with the MMDCEs to affor= d local government administration an opportunity to manage disasters effectively at the local level to monitor early warning emergencies. "There are many simple things that we need to do to achieve disaster risk reduction, they must start from the grassroots and this is what we are working towards," he added. "Our hospitals, schools, and unhealthy practices of garbage collecti= on as well as pollution of waste not well disposed-off lead to outbreak of diseases the country is experiencing," Mr Portuphy added. Mr Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, Minister of Local Government and Rural Development said disaster impacted directly on the lives and livelihoods of people and communities.

He said it also posed significant challenge to the realisation of sustainable and equitable growth and development in Ghana and other parts o= f Africa, making it more difficult, the efforts of governments to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015. The Sector Minister pointed out that government was committed to advance disaster risk reduction in the form of educational programmes for stakeholders to reduce disaster in the country. Mr Ofosu-Ampofo emphasized that for the development of disaster resilience by local authority, there should be proper implementation of disaster risk reduction initiatives to identify the challenges faced at the local level, since disaster risk was made worse by climate change, poverty, weak institution, poor governance and unsustainable development policies. Mr Kobby Acheampong, Deputy Minister of Interior, said the success of disaster risk reduction activities depended on the participation of community members, hence adaptation to climate change risk might require effecting changes within the local communities. He said supporting local community involvement was crucial and therefore needed implementation strategies that would lead to culture of safety.

"Effective way of managing disaster risk reduction is managing the information and data that have been gathered, educating people about the risks and capacity building for its implementation," he added. Ms Ruby Sandhu-Rojon, United Nations Resident Coordinator, pledged UN System supporting the mainstreaming of climate change and disaster risk reduction into the district development plans and the development of district management plans. She said the UN System was ready to support national and local actors in implementing the plan in a coordinated and effective manner to reduce disasters that were caused by human actions such as poor handling of land and water management in the country.