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City of Windhoek aims to make Windhoek disaster free

City of Windhoek aims to make Windhoek disaster free

The City of Windhoek’s Disaster Risk Management Commission recently held its first meeting at Town House to review its terms of reference and membership.

Divisional Head of the Emergency and Disaster Risk Management Division, Chief Raymond Kapia said the ultimate end goal that they want to achieve as a committee is to ensure that Windhoek continues to be built to be and maintain disaster resilience, which is framed around the ability to withstand and bounce back from acute shocks.

“Whether natural or man-made disasters such as floods, earthquakes, wildfires, epidemics, chemical spillages, power outages and chronic stress that occur over long periods of time such as groundwater depletion, deforestation or social economic issues such as homelessness, poverty and unemployment,” added Kapia.

The Committee said the Emergency and Disaster Risk Management Division will serve as the Committee’s secretariat and implementation arm.

“It will carry out the activities specified in the Act and we will meet quarterly and at least daily during a disaster, to ensure coordination of disaster response and recovery actions,” they added.

The Committee consists of the Mayor as Chairperson, the Deputy Mayor as Vice Chairperson, the Chief Executive Officer, the Chairperson of the Councilor’s Advisory Committee and Economic Development, Public Safety and Citizen Welfare, all Strategic Executives, and the Disaster Risk Management Manager.

The Committee was established in compliance with Section 17 (7) of the Disaster Risk Management Act (Act 10 of 2012) as well as Council Resolutions 259.09.2014 and 115/05/2022. The aim of the Committee is to oversee the promotion of an integrated and coordinated approach to disaster risk management in the Municipal area, with special emphasis on prevention and mitigation by all Municipal Council departments, all entities operating in the local authority area, and other role-players involved in disaster management.


 

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Mandisa Rasmeni

Mandisa Rasmeni has worked as reporter at the Economist for the past five years, first on the entertainment beat but now focussing more on community, social and health reporting. She is a born writer and she believes education is the greatest equalizer. She received her degree in Journalism at the Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST) in June 2021. . She is the epitome of perseverance, having started as the newspaper's receptionist in 2013.