Nadma To Issue Six New Standing Orders On Disaster Management Operations

PUTRAJAYA, July 18 (Bernama) -- The National Disaster Management Agency (NADMA) will issue six new Standing Orders on Disaster Management Operations (PTO) to strengthen national disaster management, said Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Sabah, Sarawak Affairs and Special Functions) Datuk Armizan Mohd Ali.

He said the new PTO are for communications; operations control centre; on-scene command posts; nuclear and radiological disasters; international humanitarian assistance and disaster relief; and landslides.

"The drafts are ready and will be refined in several sessions with stakeholders," he said in an engagement session with the media here today.

Armizan said NADMA has issued seven PTO namely for floods and tropical cyclones; industries; haze; petrochemicals; earthquakes; tsunamis; and droughts.

In preparing the PTO, NADMA was asked to get the views of academicians, non-governmental organisations and experts in various fields including technology experts, in addition to obtaining views from the government agencies, he said.

He said the PTO is a guideline that focuses on specific aspects such as communication management, citing the Batang Kali landslide tragedy as an example when media practitioners expressed their dissatisfaction over the difficulty of getting fast information regarding the incident.

"With the availability of the PTO, we hope that when something happens, the communication aspect will not be overlooked, someone must be mobilised to find information (to be conveyed to the media)," he said.

-- BERNAMA