MEMBER of Parliament for St Augustine Khadijah Ameen is calling on the Government to establish a clear policy for disaster management.
She made the comment in media release on Friday after the recent bad weather brought by tropical wave 41 that affected the country.
Ameen called upon the Minister of Rural Development and Local Government to “stop playing games” and to ensure that the municipal corporations received proper funding to respond fully functionally with their Disaster response units.
In the release, Ameen said, “Some of these regional corporations don’t even have proper finances to purchase, sand bags, fuel, emergency gears, first aid supplies, tyres for vehicles, even transport for officers to do assessments and basic supplies.”
Ameen also claimed that disaster shelters in her community such as Bamboo #3 and the St Augustine South community centres were not functional.
The former chairman of the Tunapuna Piarco Regional Corporation also claimed that disaster management responses by the Government and its agencies were slow with affected persons and communities from the flooding two weeks ago still waiting for damage assessments and compensation.
She called for clear measures and plans to be implemented by the government to ensure proper disaster management response and relief.