Honourable member of the Executive Mayoral Committee,
the President of the Disaster Management Institute of Southern Africa,
Councillors,
officials and
guests attending this event.

It is an absolute honour and privilege for me to have this opportunity to launch the Disaster Management Volunteer Programme as well as the International Strategy for disaster Risk Reduction Week. As part of the United Nation's International Strategy for Disaster Risk Reduction (ISDR), the second week of October, is annually dedicated towards "Reducing the risk of disasters". I would therefore like to take this opportunity to illustrate the Western Cape's commitment and support in this regard.

Before we go into specifics, I would like to give you a more broader picture of Disaster Management in it's international, national and provincial perspective.

Frequently, around the world disasters are occurring. Over the past year and a half we experienced the devastating Tsunami in the Indian Ocean, killing approximately 300 000 people, the huge hurricanes in North America of which hurricane Katrina remains vividly in our minds. More recently another Tsunami hit Java's Southern Coast killing more than 500 people. Other incidents were the devastating veld and forest fires in Europe and Australia and then we have to take cognisance of the fact that the future of the world's existence is threatened by "Global Warming". What a doom and gloom picture.

Closer to home the Western Cape remains one of the most disaster prone provinces in South Africa. Many of the Province's formally declared disasters are triggered by extreme weather conditions like rain, wind and slow rising water tables. The occurrence of fires in informal settlements as well as fires in the veld and national forest areas also causes major disruption and havoc in this province.

Events recorded in the Western Cape from 2005 to date, which will serve as a testimony of the high frequency of disasters in the Western Cape, are as follows:

December 2004: Major flooding Overberg, Cape Winelands and Southern Cape causing damage of approximately 27 million.

January 2005: Flooding in Mossel Bay causing damage of approximately R2,5 million.Fire in Joe Slovo which caused damage to approximately 3 150 formal and informal houses.Second Major fire in Kayamandi, which destroyed approximately 300 structures.

April 2005: Major floods in Overberg District Municipal area. The final disaster assessment figures were estimated to be above R9 million.

Feb 2006: The major fires in Cape Winelands, Table Mountain and Overberg Area amounted to approximately R25 million on direct losses and approximately R650 million on indirect losses.

While some of the inhabitants of the Western Cape were still caught in the negative effects of the declared drought areas in the Western Cape, other residents had to deal with the devastating consequences of the floods in the Overberg, Cape Winelands and the Southern Cape, which occurred during July and August. Preliminary disaster damage estimations of this event exceeds R600 million mark of which more than R300 million of the losses incurred are non-insured losses.

The effective implementation of the new Disaster Management Act, provides for the necessary structures, mechanisms and systems to effectively deal with disasters, prevent and mitigate the effects of disasters as well as to prepare and recover from disasters. The Act became operational on 01 April 2004, for National and Provincial Government and 01 July 2004, for municipalities. The two-year implementation period that follows the proclamation date, has now lapsed, placing a huge responsibility on all three spheres of government to address the requirements of the Act.

In the Province of the Western Cape we however believe that prevention is better than cure. We also believe in the Provincial Government's vision, namely "To make the Western Cape a home for all". This is achieved through the implementation strategy which is known as "Ikapa Elihlumayo" which means a "growing and sharing Cape" This strategy entails the following principles:

• Building communities and families.
• Developing skills of people.
• Building strategic infrastructure.
• Developing the Provincial Economy
• Integrating economic and social development.
• Co-ordinating and integrating service delivery.
• Improving financial governance.
• Improving the relationship between provincial and local government .

None of the above mentioned priorities of "Ikapa Elihlumayo" can be successful if we cannot address the disasters and risk that our communities have to face on a daily basis.

To make sure that the Western Cape is "A Home for All", it is absolutely essential that the safety of the citizens and visitors in the Western Cape is ensured. This will mainly be achieved with the effective implementation of the new Disaster Management Act 2002, which provides for the necessary solutions to ensure that human beings do not reside in high risk areas, which makes them vulnerable to disasters. The Act became operational on 01 April 2004, for National and Provincial Government and 01 July 2004, for municipalities. There is a two-year implementation period that follows the proclamation date, placing a huge responsibility on all three spheres of government.

In the Western Cape, commitment towards the implementation of Disaster Management is best demonstrated through the Disaster Management Training, Education, Awareness and Marketing (TEAM) Programme which is the foundation of the volunteer programme in the Western Cape. The TEAM programme was proposed as a disaster management project, with the intent and purpose to "Enhance risk reduction and coping skills of residents in the most vulnerable areas in the Western Cape through the provision of training, education and marketing interventions. These interventions are tailored to specific disaster hazards and risk applicable to vulnerable communities."

The TEAM Programme has the following objectives, namely to:

• Build the capacity of identified municipalities to prevent and mitigate disasters in their poorest communities;
• Introduce a capacity building initiative, which will enhance the survival skills of vulnerable residents to overcome the detrimental effects of disasters;
• Provide training that is tailored to the needs of residents of the most vulnerable communities in terms of the hazards they face. This training could include, but should not be limited to first aid, home care/safety, fire and flooding prevention/preparedness and disaster management training;
• The above training programme will be co-ordinated by the applicable municipality with the support and ownership of the relevant municipal and provincial line departments with the inclusion of the appropriate Community Based Organisations (CBO's) as well as Non Governmental Organisations (NGO's). All the institutions are responsible to address their wider social, developmental and enforcement issues within their sphere of influence in an integrated manner;
• Establish a culture of community safety awareness;
• Focus on both pro-active and reactive issues;
• Design a disaster risk reduction plan, which will include an emergency plan for each targeted community within a municipality.

The funding for the TEAM Programme was however a problem due to a lack of funding for this purpose at provincial level. This funding obstacle was however overcome with funds (R1 873 200.00), sponsored by the Development Fund of the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA). The Development Fund's aim is to facilitate efficient and effective service delivery and to support municipalities in their constitutional responsibilities. This is done by offering assistance to address capacity challenges faced by the municipalities and to communities they serve.

The following ten most vulnerable communities were identified in the Western Cape and training has already commenced or has been completed:

Masiphumelele
Doornbach
Phola Park
Khayelitsha TR Section
Wallacedene
Witsand
De Doorns
Kayamandi
George Informal Settlement Area
Theewaterskloof

The TEAM Programme was designed as a multi-sectoral and multi-disciplinary approach. Relevant government departments will be responsible for the implementation of their line function activities namely:

Fire Safety	Fire brigade services of municipalities
First Aid	Provincial Departments of Health in collaboration with Social Services and similar structures on municipal level.
Home Care	Provincial Department of Health incollaboration with Social Services and similar structures on municipal level.
Disaster Management	Provincial and municipal disasterManagement structures.

At present there are already volunteers trained in the different categories mentioned above. The target date of the completion of this volunteer programme is end March 2007. The programme will be maintained by my Department, whilst additional funding is sourced for it's application in the high risk and vulnerable areas in the Western Cape.

The second programme I also want to refer to today is the "Disaster Risk Reduction Begins at School" Programme. This programme was developed by the United Nations as part of their International Strategy for Disaster Risk Reduction (ISDR).

The objectives of the schools programme are to promote:

• The inclusion of disaster risk reduction knowledge into primary and secondary school curricula in countries prone to natural hazards;
• Local risk assessment and disaster preparedness programmes with the participation of secondary schools acting as a resource center for disaster risk reduction;
• The protection and strengthening of schools, through proper design, retrofitting and re-building, to make them resilient to natural hazards.

In this province we are already investigating the possible obtainment of a programme that was developed by Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality in Guateng and the Institute of Disaster Reduction of Potchefstroom University.

A Task Team which comprises the Provincial Disaster Management Centre, the Provincial Department of Education and several NGO's of which the Child Prevention Accident Foundation of South Africa is one, are presently investigating the contents of the programme for application in the Western Cape.

At this stage the already developed school programme seems to be suited for the Western Cape and as soon as the necessary funding is acquired we hope to launch this programme in three schools in this province in collaboration with the Department of Education, Child Prevention Accident Foundation South Africa and the Institute of Disaster Risk Reduction.

At this stage I would like to launch the volunteer programme in the Western Cape. I also pledge my Departments support towards the ISDR's "Disaster Risk Reduction Begins at School" project, which is to be piloted in three schools in the 2007 school year.

I would like to than everyone who have contributed towards a safer Western Cape Province and that we all will strive to make this province a "Home for All".