Dr. Barbara Carby (left), head of the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM), and Dean Peart (centre), Minister of Land and Environment, are in a pensive mood at the ODPEM's 25th anniversary service at the Faith Cathedral Deliverance Centre in Kingston yesterday. At right is Errol Greene, executive chairman of the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA). - JUNIOR DOWIE/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
LAND AND Environment Minister, Dean Peart, said yesterday that the time has come for disaster preparedness to be a part of the school curriculum.
In a message read by Donovan Stanberry, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Land and Environment, Mr. Peart said while the ODPEM has done well since its establishment 25 years ago, the agency needed to intensify its public education campaign islandwide.
The occasion was the 25th anniversary service of the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM) at the Faith Cathedral Deliverance Centre in Kingston,
"Looking over this past 25 years, ODPEM can be justly proud of its achievements especially as its role has changed significantly. We've all observed their growth and transition from the early focus on responsibility for disasters to an expanded rehabilitation," he said.
PARADIGM SHIFT
But according to Minister Peart, if Jamaica is to recover from these disasters a "paradigm shift must be made to include mitigation and preparedness".
He argued that disaster mitigation had to be made a way of life. "ODPEM is expected to play a major role and be the driving force in implementing the national hazard mitigation policy," he said. "I believe that the time has come for ODPEM to intensify and mainstream the public education programme in the schools' curriculum."
Initiatives such as coastal flooding awareness programmes, he said, were very important and useful not only nationally but can also facilitate regional efforts and disaster mitigation.
