Africa-Press – Mauritius. The Vice-Prime Minister, Minister of Local Government and Disaster Risk Management, Dr Mohammad Anwar Husnoo, discussed with the Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development, Dr Renganaden Padayachy, his priorities during the policy dialogue held, yesterday, in Port Louis, in the context of the preparation of the 2022 – 2023 Budget.
In a statement, after the meeting, the Vice-Prime Minister pointed out that the main issue at the level of Local Authorities was staff shortages, and proposed, as a measure in the next budget, the recruitment of technical officers and engineers.
He explained that inadequate staffing was hindering the completion of projects, for which funds had already been allocated. 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, like cleaning of drain, and thus deliver modern and timely services to the citizens.
Dr Husnoo indicated that the I-Council project had been implemented in five of the local authorities and that the target would be to deploy it in the other seven authorities. He also said that more incinerators would be added to the 16 already constructed last year.
Regarding the Meteorological Services, the Vice-Prime underlined the importance of procuring new equipment as well as training of the personnel in the face of the impact of global warming.
As for disaster management, the execution of phase 1 of an early warning system through SMS and the initiation of Phase 2 were the focus of discussions.
Dr Husnoo stressed the importance of having an early warning system via mobile phones to communicate to the population any risk information, such as flash floods, as rapidly as possible, so that they could take the necessary precautions and ensure their own safety.
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