People’s National Congress Reform questions Government’s disaster preparedness.

Georgetown-  The main opposition PNC/R today stated that the recent natural disasters around the world, including, the earthquakes of New Zealand and Japan, should put the Guyana Government on notice that the Guyana Civil Defence Commission and the country’s disaster preparedness should be matters of national priority as Guyana continues to experience the adverse effects of torrential rains. The party added that the experiences of Guyanese during the massive floods of 2005 demonstrate that the authorities have not yet developed the capacity to deal with such disasters. It was fortuitous that the East Demerara Water Conservancy (EDWC) Dam was not seriously breached at that time as it is still frightening to contemplate how, with inadequate facilities, evacuation of citizens from the below sea level coastline would have been accomplished. That danger still, however, exists as the persistent rainfall over the past two weeks has demonstrated asserted the PNC/R. 
The PNCR is urging the PPP/C Administration to treat as a matter of national priority the effective and efficient organisation of the Civil Defence Commission, claiming that nothing can be more unsatisfactory than the lack of public information about standard operational procedures, should any serious eventuality occur, such as, the flooding of major sections of the coast as a result of any major breach of our sea and river defences coupled with a major breach on the conservancy dam.