Chairman of the Works and Housing Committee in Parliament, Vincent Oppong Asamoah has emphasized the importance of ensuring that relief items provided to victims during natural disasters are tailored to their actual needs.
His statement comes after officials from the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) in the Nanumba South District of the Northern Region were prevented from conducting an assessment in Lugni, where a severe rainstorm on the evening of Sunday, March 16, left many homes extensively damaged.
According to residents, NADMO has never provided them with support during past disasters despite consistently visiting the community to take pictures and videos for their assessments. Frustrated by the lack of assistance, they blocked officials from carrying out their work.
In an exclusive interview on Channel One Newsroom on Monday, March 17, Oppong Asamoah opined that it is not enough to simply distribute a few items and claim to have provided relief.
Instead, he stressed that the items provided must be relevant and useful to those affected.
According to the Dormaa West lawmaker, this approach is crucial in helping victims recover from disasters and rebuild their lives.
“They [NADMO] have the capacity but the problem is that we don’t resource them. In terms of the technical ability they have, we need to resource them and we need to ensure that not giving them money alone, that when monies are given to them, what is supplied is what the people really need.
“It is not like, just go out there, take some few items, cartons, containers and then go and give to them that you have provided relief items. Meanwhile, we need to help them at least with some level of restitution to get them back to where they were before the disaster came,” he said.
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