Plans are underway by the Government to launch the national disaster preparedness strategic plan and the national emergency plan and share the documents with the grass roots for awareness creation. According to the Government, the documents will be disseminated to the people at the grassroots through collaboration with other stakeholders in the country such as Civil Society Organisations (CSOs).
The Director of Disaster Management in the Prime Minister's Office, Mr. Jimmy Saidi, said that lack of awareness among members of the public about disaster preparedness is one of challenges when it comes to disaster management. "After being launched, the national disaster preparedness strategic plan and the national emergency plan the Government will come up with a framework on how we can go up to the grassroots level by cooperating with other stakeholders including CSO," he said.
He said the move will help to reduce disruptive impacts of various disasters because people will have sufficient information on what measures they should take in case of emergencies. Mr. Saidi was speaking at the launch of an empowerment session on laws, policies and plans governing Disaster Management in Tanzania and how to safely respond to natural calamities to human rights defenders convened in Dar es Salaam.
The event was organised by the Tanzania Human Rights Defenders Coalition (THRDC). The Director said involving Civil Society Organisation (CSOs) would speed up awareness creation on disasters to the grassroots level, a move that will minimise shock, losses and deaths because people will have sufficient knowledge of what to do in time of emergencies. He added that Tanzania has a good plan for emergency preparedness strategy in African thus it was a high time such plans was taken to the wider public for fruitful results in preventing, countering disasters and post disaster return to normalcy.
For his part, the National Coordinator of THRDC Advocate Onesmo Olengurumwa, said that creating awareness to the members of the public, would fasten disaster interventions like formulation of disasters countering committees at village, ward district and national levels. The knowledge, according to him, would be beneficial as it would raise awareness on the matter and have people volunteering even to contribute their money to the national disaster fund.
"It is not very easy to talk about disasters clearly for we are not accustomed to talking about disasters and calamities, but the effects of the aftermath are very serious, for example the effects of earthquakes, floods, wind diseases ...This is why today we are conducting this training among human rights defenders as the step towards reaching a wider society," the activist said.