The mandate for disaster risk management in Guyana has continued to expand and advance over time. This is highly justifiable considering the vast increases in the number, frequency and intensity of disasters and emergencies occurring across the globe, resulting from both natural and anthropogenic hazards.
This is according to Director General of the Civil Defence Commission [CDC], Lieutenant Colonel, Kester Craig. Craig speaking at workshop at the Grand Coastal Hotel, East Coast Demerara said that “The impacts of the hazards are widespread, span across all sectors, and include impacts such as loss of life, damage to property and infrastructure, and disruption of key services such as healthcare, to name a few.” Emergency response, therefore, can never be the responsibility of one entity, given the implications these hazard impacts have on all our sectors and resources, he said. “Nationally, we have recognised and accepted this fact, which is evident in our willingness to be engaged in collaborative planning and response to emergency situations and disasters,” he added.
Although commendable, much is still to be desired with one of our greatest limitations being that there is no documented policy for Incident Command System [ICS] and Mass Casualty Management [MCM] to ensure that there is a cooperative response by multiple agencies, or, more importantly, to organize and coordinate response activities without compromising the decision-making authority of the local command. As it is known, during mass casualty incidents the local healthcare system can be easily overwhelmed if there is no system in place.
In a bid to address these gaps, the CDC and PAHO/WHO have embarked on a collaborative partnership aimed at developing the policy framework for Incident Command System and Mass Casualty Management in Guyana to ensure that disaster response is done in a comprehensive and systematic way. Moreover, today’s activity is, not only because of what it will add to the country’s resilience, but more importantly because clear policies for ICS and MCM will help to save lives and safeguard resources, Craig said.
He continued, “I would like to extend my profound gratitude to PAHO/WHO for recognizing the need for policies in these critical areas, but more so for their investments and partnership in the country’s development.”
