Accra, Oct. 8, GNA - Selective disaster management, through timely hazard identification and risk reduction, is the prerequisite to the protection of human, economic and environmental resources needed for accelerated and sustainable development. Mr. Kobina Tahir Hammond, Deputy Minister of the Interior, launching this year's International Day for Disaster Reduction, said a timely and effective humanitarian response in times of disaster considerably helped to restore normality into the lives of victims. He said in Ghana the focus had been on building pro-active prevention

and mitigation mechanisms rather than reaction to disasters. This year's celebration, under the theme; "Hospitals Safe from Disaster" aim at raising awareness and effect change that would protect the lives of patients and health workers by ensuring the structural resilience of health facilities. It would also make sure health facilities and health services are able to function in the aftermath of emergencies and disasters when they are most needed and improve the risk reduction capacity of health workers and institutions, including emergency management. Mr Hammond said: "It is said that the most expensive hospital is the one that fails to function in the event of an emergency when its services are most needed." He therefore, called on all Ministries, Departments and Agencies as well as the civil society organisations with responsibilities towards the architecture of health facilities around the country to ensure that they were strong enough to withstand the effects of disasters, especially earthquake. "We must also ensure that disaster prevention is raised among health workers to enable them to become central to identifying potential health risks from natural hazards and promoting personal and community risk reduction measures," he added. The Deputy Minister also pledged the government's commitment to resource the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), as the focal agency, to enable it to play its co-ordinating role in disaster management. He said disaster risk reduction was everybody's business and in everybody's interest and urged all stakeholders to join in the campaign to achieve the objective of the theme for this year's celebration. "Together we can make our hospitals safe from disasters". Alhaji Sulemana Yirimea, National Deputy Co-ordinator of NADMO in a speech read for the Coordinator, DCOP Douglas Akrofi Aseidu (Rtd), said the cost of making hospitals safe from disasters was minimal as compared to the price paid for their failure. He said disaster damage to health systems was a human tragedy, resulted in huge economic loses, dealt devastating blows to development goals and shook social confidence. DCOP Asiedu said making hospitals and health facilities safe from disasters was therefore an economic requirement and also a social and moral necessity. To achieve this, NADMO in collaboration with its stakeholders, had drawn up a series of programmes to raise awareness on the need to keep health facilities safe from disasters, he said. The UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon, his message, urged all member countries which adopted the Hyogo Framework for Action, which aim to reduce their collective vulnerability to natural hazards to do more to turn commitments on paper into deeds that could keep the next major disaster from taking so many lives and destroying so many livelihoods.

He said: "Now more than ever, when we are trying to accelerate national and international efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, disaster risk reduction needs to be acknowledged and incorporated as a key plank of that work. "The threats posed by climate change - including increasing droughts, floods and storms - increase the urgency further still, particularly in the world's poorest, most vulnerable communities." 8 Oct. 08