DMPGM partners with UPNG to tackle Environmental Disasters in PNG

Papua New Guinea has been vulnerable to various natural and man-made disasters over the years which occur frequently and affect a lot of lives.

All these impacts place enormous financial burden to the people and the levels of government where finances are spent on unbudgeted events.

As a way forward, Papua New Guineans need to be prepared to cater for to minimize such unexpected experiences.

As such the Department of Mineral Policy and Geohazard Management through the Geohazard Management Division had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the University of Papua New Guinea, via the Center for Disaster Reduction, recently to train, educate and develop and up skilled personnel who would be knowledgeable and understand the geohazard of Papua New Guinea, Pacific Islands and the world as a whole.

Secretary of the DMPGM, Shadrach Himata said the value of geohazards should not be underestimated simply because PNG is prone to many different geographical risks.

 Himata said landslides, tsunamis, floods, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions are few of the geohazard risk PNG is facing at the moment and once these disasters occur they wipe out everything in their path.

“Our infrastructure, our assets, our people are living around geohazard and we need to understand where these things exists and we need to be aware. Once we are aware of where these things exist then we can be able to plan. We can manage how we can put our schools, our roads and health services and so forth to avoid natural phenomena’s and avoid economic loss,” Said Mr. Himata.

  Himata said a skillful manpower is required at the DMPGM to work with researchers and institutions such as University of Papua New Guinea through the Centre for Disasters Reduction to tackle the issue.

Himata explained that his department has set up a system where real time information would be available for all provinces in PNG to identify potential risk areas and allow provincial governments to plan wisely.

“We also have a state of the art laboratory for soil testing, geo technical testing and similar… In order to sustain all these things that we have set up; we need the skill, workforce and the man power to sustain it. We are also developing a geohazards management policy which would capture our vision that all the physical planning boards in the country would use that as a criterion for buildings and designs and so forth.”

 

Nonetheless, HiImata reiterated that the skills and knowledge to carry out the task is very important and the agreement with other partners such as JICA, World Bank, Geo Science Australia and with UPNG coming on board is a key partnership that DMPGM embraces.

Vice Chancellor of the University of Papua New Guinea, Professor Albert Mellam, welcomed the partnership of DMPGM.

Professor Mellam said the risk PNG faces in terms of natural disasters is very high as PNG is one of the top 10 countries in the world in terms of loss of lives by natural disasters in proportion to population.

“It is unfortunate that many of us are unaware of the risk and often we are unprepared when disaster strikes. There are also very few disaster awareness programs in PNG and the partnership with DMPGM and the center for disaster reduction at UPNG would profile these important aspect of humanity that affects our communities and our country,” Said Professor Mellam.

Mellam added that UPNG is grateful of the partnership DMPGM has forged with the institution in recognizing the importance of disaster risk management in the country.