A budget of $15.5m was allocated to the Ministry of Disaster Management and Meteorological Services from the 2018/2019 national budget.
The increase allocation of $1.8m in the ministry’s operation expenditure is attributed to an increase in the recruitment of addition staff to strengthen its operation.
It is also attributed to the increase in other operating expenditure for travel and communications, maintenance and purchase of goods and services.
Minister Responsible, Inia Seruiratu says this will assist them in their disaster risk management operations.
“The role played by meteorological services and National Disaster Management office is very critical, Very technical ministries as we need to build the capacities, we need to look at the new technologies that are available so we can effectively deliver our services well. Early warning systems are very critical in terms of the weather forecast and also with disaster in terms of flood warnings and tsunami warnings as well. So this is something that we’re working on and of course we look forward to the utilization of what we’re given so we can contribute towards resilience building for Fiji.”
Meanwhile, $99,000 has been allocated for multimedia publication awareness programs, $460,000 for upgrade of outer island stations and $370,000 for the installation of Water level and rainfall telemetry equipment.
