THE Office of Disaster Management (ODPM) Jeeps were not needed for deployment as the disaster situations were not high level enough to warrant it.
This was according to the ODPM in a release on Thursday in response to people asking why the two vehicles were not deployed during recent flooding events.
The ODPM said in their release that the Disaster Management Units (DMU) 4×4 vehicles that were deployed were more than sufficient to deal with the situation as it was a level one incident according to the National Response Framework (NRF).
The ODPM said, “Though it affected more than one municipal corporation, it was well within the DMUs capabilities and therefore it was not escalated to the ODPM for assistance. When more transportation assets were required, they relied on those from unaffected corporation.”
The ODPM said that the NRF was a subset of the National Disaster Management System (NDMS) which created the blueprint for disaster response globally using a three-layered response system.
While its title could give the impression of having to deal with all matters related to emergencies or disasters, the ODPM understood that persons were sometimes unaware of the NDMS and the roles and responsibilities of the different agencies.
