THE Acting Director of the National Disaster Centre , Lusete Mana, has urged provincial disaster coordinators not to work in isolation but to keep in constant communication with their provincial administrators and the National Centre on issues related to disaster, emergency and imminent droughts.

Mr Mana made the call last Friday at the closing of a weeklong provincial disaster coordinators conference in Port Moresby at the Gateway Hotel.

He said two key issues raised in the recent and most conferences are financial and manpower constraints.

Mr Mana said the two same issues are always raised during conferences however, solutions must be found to address these issues.

“ The challenge is on us to send situation reports and keep in constant communication with our provincial administrators.

“ We cannot work in isolation – we must have good communication with our provincial administrators, give them updates and reports to receive a good budgetary support, Mr Mana said.

“ The roaming days are over. Now it is time for real business. We will not waste time. We have to go back and set our targets right,” Mr Mana said.

He thanked the UNDP for their support in assisting the Centre in hosting the conference.

Former Acting Director for NDC, Martin Mose said the recent conference was the best one he ever he had attended and the Chief Secretary for AROB Esther Usurup described the conference as a ‘fantastic time of learning’.

Ms Usurup said provincial disaster coordinators must have a military mindset so they can effectively manage disasters in their provinces.

The National Disaster Centre Office formerly came under the office of Provincial and Local Level Governments but now is part of the Defence Department.

Twenty two Provincial Disaster Coordinators attended the weeklong conference with the objective of discussing how they could strengthen their local capacities to disaster risk reduction in line with the Government’s goal to ‘Leave No One Behind’.

All Provincial Coordinators gave thorough updates.

An update of the climate outlook and drought condition was also distributed at the conference in a report – PNG Drought Response and Recovery Plan 2023 to 2024 .

The National Disaster Corporate Plan 2023- 2024 , was also distributed to the provincial coordinators.

The NMSA Captain Krzyszt (Kris) Orlowski led discussions on important issues of response capabilities and preparedness to potential disasters. Issues of risk and hazard mapping, disaster data based and information system too were discussed.

Story by: Harlyne Joku