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The Tema Metropolitan Assembly has inaugurated its Metropolitan Disaster Management Committee, a strategic move aimed at strengthening preparedness, coordination and response to emergencies across the metropolis.
The 19-member committee is chaired by the Metropolitan Chief Executive (MCE), Ebi Bright, with the Metropolitan National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) Director, Zenabu Abdulai, serving as secretary.
Other key members include the Acting Metropolitan Coordinating Director, Rebecca Mamle Abuanor; the Members of Parliament for Tema East and Tema Central, Isaac Ashai Odamtten and Charles Forson, respectively and the Managing Director of TDC Ghana Ltd, Courage Nunekpeku.
Other members were representatives of critical institutions such as the Ghana Police Service, the Eastern Naval Command, the Ghana National Fire Service, the National Investigations Bureau, the Ghana Education Service, the Environmental Health and Sanitation Department, the Metropolitan Planning and Works Departments, the Ghana Meteorological Agency, the Information Services Department, Social Welfare Department, the Environmental Protection Authority among others.
Speaking at the event held last Friday, the MCE, Ms Bright, highlighted the importance of collaboration among the assembly, its departments and various agencies.
She said Tema’s challenges could only be effectively addressed when all departments and agencies were fully supported and aligned with the assembly’s broader vision.
“Every solution lies in how well we partner our agencies and integrate them into Tema’s broader plan,” she said.
Ms Bright also stressed Tema’s unique status as a port and industrial hub, which exposed the city to concentrated social and physical hazards.
She praised NADMO’s role in disaster prevention, mitigation and resilience, particularly in maintaining watercourses and sewage systems and urged committee members to tackle urban hazards such as unregulated structures, abandoned containers and unsafe installations.
The Metropolitan NADMO director reiterated that Tema’s rapid industrial and commercial growth came with risks, including floods, fires, industrial accidents, coastal erosion and public health emergencies.
She explained that the committee, established under the National Disaster Management Organisation Act, 2016 (Act 927) and the Local Governance Act, 2016 (Act 936), would develop and review disaster preparedness plans, coordinate emergency responses and ensure timely relief for affected communities.
Hajia Abdulai commended the MCE for the Tema Facelift Campaign Initiative, which has promoted development control, disaster risk reduction, sanitation improvement and environmental protection.
She noted that key interventions under the campaign have included clearing hazards in schools and communities, desilting drains, reorganising kiosks and protecting wetlands at the Ramsar Site.
On behalf of the committee, she pledged to strengthen preparedness, raise public awareness and ensure coordinated and swift responses.
The Greater Accra Regional Director of NADMO, Dennis Nartey, who swore in the members, praised the assembly’s efforts and urged proactive hazard identification, citing the Kaiser Flats in Tema Community 4 as an immediate risk.
“Our goal is to build resilience, not to respond to disasters after they happen,” he said, adding: “Together, we can protect lives, property and livelihoods, and build a safer, more resilient Tema.”
