-As Ambassador Expresses Fear of Natural Disasters in Liberia.
By: Leila B. Gbati
In order to mitigate risk management and incorporate disaster risk reduction (DRR) and disaster risk management (DRM) into education and school curriculum in Liberia, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), in partnership with the Notional Disaster Management Agency of Liberia (NDMA), is Organizing an in-Country training for school teachers and education officers in Liberia for the prevention, response, and resilience disaster and emergencies.
The three-day event which started August 28, 2023 and concluded on August 30, 2023 is intended to broaden the knowledge of school administrators on the prevention, response, and further enhance their resilience on disaster and emergencies.
In West Africa, the magnitude of vulnerability and exposure to hazards and losses from disasters is expected to continue to increase over the next decade. Floods and drought remain the most severe disasters in West Africa.
In Liberia, around 2.2 million people are exposed to floods, 320,000 coastal erosion and 2.1 million to windstorms. And with the impact of climate change, the country is expected to see increased risks from these natural disasters.
The resident representative of the Economic Community of West African States, Josephine Nkrumah reported that Liberia is one of the wettest countries in the world with an average annual rainfall of more than 5,000 mm in Monrovia.
Ambassador Nkrumah intimated that Liberia is prone to many natural risks and hazards such as floods, sea-erosion, storms and fires that put the country at the risk of hydrometeorological hazards and natural disasters.
“As we all know, climate change is expected to result in more extreme weather situations such as heavy rains and drought in West Africa. While Liberia is prone to flooding and sea-erosion, storms and fires that put the country at the risk of hydrometeorological hazards and natural disasters.”
Furthermore, the ECOWAS envoy added that the heavily populated parts of the coast could be affected by frequent waterlogging that is likely to result to insignificant economic losses, damage to agricultural lands, infrastructures as well as human casualties.
Ambassador Nkrumah provided that Liberia vulnerability to disaster is accelerated due to the country’s high level of poverty and high dependence on climate change sensitive sectors such as agriculture, fisheries, mining and forestry.
Asserting that the country dependency on these activities further strains the coping capacity of Liberia as a country that is still recovering from the Ebola outbreak of 2014-2016 and the current Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
She revealed that in response to the increasing risks of disasters, the ECOWAS Commission, in collaboration with its partners have developed a new action program for the period 2015-2030 in line with the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), the AU Regional Program for DRR and the ECOWAS Policy on DRR in order to implement activities aimed at strengthening the capacities of Member States.
The representative of the Economic Community of West African States in Liberia added that ECOWAS adopted in 2020 its Flood Management Strategy, Gender Mainstreaming in DRR Strategy and Hydrometeorological Program for Post-disaster recovery and development calls for the inclusion ofDisaster Risk Reduction in development interventions with the aimed of reducing long-term risks and thereby building resilience.
Meanwhile, in order to increase awareness of disaster risk reduction, consolidate disaster risk reduction interventions, and lay the foundation for long-term risk reduction, ambassador Nkrumah therefore called on the relevant authority to deem it necessary to start raising awareness among future generations, especially school children and students in general.
She added that the workshop on integrating disaster risk reduction into school curriculum aims to build capacity and improves the knowledge and skills of teachers and educators on rating disaster risk reduction and management into school curricula.
It was said that the training is in line with the implementation of the ECOWAS action plan, which includes in its priority areas the development of education, training, research and technology programs on disasters.
“This pilot workshop initiated by the ECOWAS Commission provides an opportunity for national stakeholders to address how educational policies, planning and programs can strengthen the resilience of children, youth, schools, communities and the education system through comprehensive approaches to school safety and social cohesion.” Ambassador Nkrumah said.
She further stated that integrating Disaster Risk Reduction into the education sector is a cost-effective measure to reduce the long-term impact of disasters and helps prepare each new generation by institutionalizing disaster preparedness into the formal learning process.
“Raising awareness in the school community has a significant impact and promotes the construction of safer school buildings that can protect the lives of students, teachers, and school officials, as well as those who take refuge in schools as the buildings are often transformed into safe shelters during disasters.”
The Ambassador continued by reaffirming ECOWAS commitment to accompany its member states to be resilient in times of disaster. And lauded the government in assisting the ECOWAS Commission for the development of its communities.”
“Allow me, on behalf of the President of the ECOWAS Commission, to take this opportunity to reaffirm ECOWAS’ commitment to continue to accompany its Member States in the search for and training of disaster resilient communities that threaten the Region. I also express our gratitude to the National Disaster Management Agency of Liberia and Government of Liberia who continue to work with us for the development of our communities.”
The ECOWAS ambassador concluded by admonishing the participants to have frank and open discussions in order to capitalize on the results of the workshop for the benefit of the education sector in general and their schools in particular in the bid to mitigate the disaster risk.
At the same time, the Secretary General of the Liberia National Red Cross Society Gregory T. Blamo urged school administrators to at all times prevent health outbreak by reintroducing the hand washingmethodology in schools adding that “the lack of hand-wash facility at schools pose a lot of risk to the health and well-being of students. Therefore, fearing that there is a possibility of a health crisis if hand-wash facilities are not reintroduced.”
