Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Ministry praises region’s emergency response planning

The Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management Capability Assessment Report has commended the Manawatu-Wanganui Civil Defence Emergency Management (CDEM) Group’s emergency response.

The report carried out in March 2010 states that: “the Manawatu-Wanganui Group is a model of how CDEM Group members should work together to achieve common goals. The benefits and efficiencies of doing so are evident, in terms of shared resources, peer support among Emergency Management Officers, coordinated planning, and development of transferable skills and training. Given the Group has eight local authorities and a significant geographic area, it is a credit to them that they have been able to develop this sense of cooperation and collaborative working – by no means a given in other CDEM Groups.”

The CDEM Group is based on regional boundaries and combines 8 x councils (Horizons, Ruapehu, Wanganui, Rangitikei, Manawatu, Tararua, Palmerston North, and Horowhenua), emergency services and health boards. It takes a highly coordinated approach to emergency management in the region.

CDEM Joint Committee chairman, Garrick Murfitt said the report is a pleasing reflection of the hard work and dedication of the Group.

“Public safety is paramount and responding to emergencies is a core function of the regional, city and district councils. It’s important that our response capability is robust and this report confirms that we are well on track,” says Mr Murfitt.

The report identifies three areas where improvements could be made: regional welfare coordination, recovery planning and business continuity.

Manager of the Groups Emergency Management Office, Shane Bayley says these areas will form the key focus for the Group over the next year.

1 comment:

Kerry McSaveney said...

It wouldn't surpise me if welfare was on everyone's "can do better" list.