Disaster rediness workshop:

Deputy Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of National Security Veronica Belgrave stated yesterday management of the receipt, storage and dispersion of emergency relief supplies has been recognised as a challenge for emergency management systems throughout the entire Caribbean region.

She was speaking at the opening of a two day training course on warehouse management for emergency personnel, the first of its kind to occur nationally, organised by the Office of Disaster Preparedness Management (ODPM) in conjunction with the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency (CDERA) at the ODPM’s headquarters.

The ceremony was attended by representatives of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) from Tobago, the Ministry of Works and Transport, the Defence Force, the Living Water Community, NIPDEC and local government who will also be taking part in the workshop which ends today.

Belgrave noted that with regard to this lack of experience in managing relief supplies, “CDERA has been supporting training in this area throughout its 16 participating states to develop national as well as regional capability in the management of relief supplies.”

The purpose of the training course which began yesterday in Trinidad therefore is to expose participants to warehouse management including storage procedures, stock management, preservation and packaging, material handling, equipment requirements and truck loading to be used throughout the Caribbean region.

She explained there is a warehouse with regional supplies located at the Central Stores in Debe as Trinidad and Tobago is the sub regional focal point for the southern region of the Caribbean and added that the ODPM is seeking to expand its warehouse facilities and has plans to also put in place regional warehouses to enable a swifter deployment of relief supplies.

When asked how prepared Trinidad and Tobago was for natural disaster and its after effects with special regard to the commencement of the hurricane season for 2006, coordinator of the ODPM Joanne Persad replied the state of institutional readiness that is the preparation of the police and fire services, the Defence Force and related government ministries is being constantly tested. There is need however for an examination of individual readiness which is, the preparations for homes and mapping out of routes to relief centres made by citizens in the event of any natural disaster.

She emphasised the ODPM is ready to handle “level one” and “level two” emergencies which are situations where disasters do not exhaust the capacities of the ODPM and other national security agencies such as the police and fire services, Defence Force and related ministries. When “level 3” disasters occur, emergency services from the regional as well as the worldwide community are engaged although she noted this has not been necessary here in Trinidad and Tobago for the last 20 or 30 years.