URBAN development deputy minister Derek Klazen officially opened the new N$4 million fire station at Keetmanshoop last Thursday.
The fire station consists of four offices, storage facilities, as well as sleeping quarters and a kitchen for staff members on stand-by duties.
Klazen urged local authorities to view and treat emergency management as an integral part of their core functions as well as area of responsibility.
Regarding the National Disaster Risk Management Act, 2012 every public institution, including local authorities, is obliged to develop and put in place a framework for preventing or reducing and mitigating the risk and severity of disasters and emergency preparedness and responses.
Against this backdrop, he urged the council and its administrators to implement the emergency response plan and the development of a disaster risk management framework as a priority.
According to Klazen, the ministry funded the construction of the fire station on the basis of its policy stance that seeks to ensure that local authorities have operational fire emergency and rescue stations which have the necessary tools and equipment to efficiently and effectively respond to any emergency situation.
“A fire station is not an end in itself, neither is it the only or entire solution in dealing with fires.
Other critical aspects or components must be in place to complement and make it effective,” he advised.
The emergency response plan, said the deputy minister, should be a living and working document that is regularly updated according to changing circumstances, and which provides a guide to the protocols, regulations, procedures and division of responsibilities in emergency responses.
Furthermore, local authorities’ efforts in ensuring emergency management and safeguarding of the community will only be successful if they forge strategic partnership and linkages with residents as well as other institutions that are in a position to provide financial and technical support to the emergency management services, he added.
Klazen also emphasised the importance of having skilled staff in the field of emergency response.
Previously, the council’s emergency services operated from the old municipal office located in the town.
On her part, the town’s mayor, Gaudentia KrÖhne, said the new fire station is strategically located to provide quick and easy access to those areas that are more prone to fires due to the high prevalence of informal housing.
The mayor implored locals, particularly those residing in informal settlements, to refrain from building structures too close to one another to provide rescue and emergency vehicles easy access to disaster areas.
She likewise urged locals to refrain from erecting shacks in riverbeds, referring to the recent tragic incident in which a mother died and her three-year-old son went missing when a flood swept away the family shack in the Havana informal settlement in Windhoek.
Meanwhile, deputy veterans’ affairs minister Hilma Nicanor, who is also Keetmanshoop urban constituency councillor, said the previous facility which was used as a fire station was “unsuitable” to house firefighters.
This, said the deputy minister, affected the response time to emergencies, which resulted in high casualties and damage to property at the town.
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