Africa-Press – Mauritius. A Policy Dialogue meeting in the context of the 2023/24 national Budget was held, yesterday, in Port-Louis, between the Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development, Dr Renganaden Padayachy, and the Vice-Prime Minister (VPM), Minister of Local Government and Disaster Risk Management, Dr Mohammad Anwar Husnoo.
In a statement after the meeting, the VPM pointed out that discussions focused on several priorities, and one of the main issues raised at the level of Local Authorities was the lack of adequate staffing which was hindering the completion of projects, for which funds had already been allocated in the previous budget. On this note, he indicated that he proposed as a measure in the next budget, the recruitment of more staff.
Furthermore, Dr Husnoo underlined that the I-Council project was also discussed. This project aims at using innovative technologies to effectively manage and supervise activities at the level of local authorities, such as cleaning of drain, and thus deliver modern and timely services to the citizens. Dr Husnoo shared that the I-Council project had been implemented for the past one year, however, a shortage of staff has been observed in this sector as well.
As for Disaster Management, VPM Husnoo highlighted that there is the need to review the Fire and Rescue Services as generally Fire Services are supposed to respond to catastrophes within five minutes, but currently they are taking nine minutes to respond. “We therefore raised this point with the Finance Minister as we are planning to come up with a new project to set up new fire stations and substations around the island in a bid to cover the whole of Mauritius,” he said.
This initiative, Dr Husnoo stressed, is of utmost importance as previously, Fire Officers were called to respond only to fire catastrophes, but now, with climate change, they are being called upon to respond to flash floods and other natural calamities and will continue to do so in the future. Thus, they need to be ready and at proximity to be able to respond in the five-minute time frame, he added.
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