By Lekereni Chinkhota
Department of Disaster Management Affairs (DoDMA) has constructed an Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) in Salima district to ease coordination during disasters within and outside the district.
Speaking on Wednesday after touring the facility, Deputy Director responsible for Disaster Preparedness at DoDMA, Fedson Chikuse expressed satisfaction with how the facility has been constructed and how it will boost coordination on disaster activities.
“This is a place where the district will be doing their coordination of disaster activities within the district and outside the district when a disaster occurs. The disaster management team will also be connected directly to head office in Lilongwe where they will be getting timely information,” he said.
“As you know Salima is one of the disaster prone districts in the country, it was selected to have this facility so that when a disaster strikes, it should be able to coordinate with other colleagues for response activities,” Chikuse said.
District Commissioner for Salima, James Mwenda, appreciated the construction of the facility, saying it will be focal point for all disaster management and prevention in the district.
“The facility will be of great benefit to Salima, being one of the disaster prone districts. It was difficult for us to operate without proper structure even the disaster management team did not have proper office space to operate in.
“This project has come at the right time because it will ease the problem of office space,” he said.
The facility will be installed with modern technology to report disaster occurrences to DoDMA.
The three roomed facility has been designed to accommodate modern technology that will ease communication to deal with issues of disaster in the district and for response activities.