The Civil Defence Commission (CDC) has handed over the National Oil Spill Contingency Plan for Guyana to Prime Minister, Brigadier (ret’d) Mark Phillips.
Director General of the CDC, Lieutenant Colonel Kester Craig, who presented the plan, noted that the work on the finished plan was months in the making and involved the input of many key stakeholders including the Maritime Administrative Department (MARAD), Guyana Energy Agency (GEA), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Department of Energy, Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC), Guyana Defence Force (GDF) and the Civil Defence Commission (CDC).
Prime Minister Brigadier Mark Phillips (left) affixes his signature to a copy of the National Oil Spill Contingency Plan, as Director General of the Civil Defence Commission (CDC), Lieutenant Colonel Kester Craig, pays keen attention
He further posited that with Guyana’s oil and gas sector coming on stream, the need was highlighted for an oil spill response mechanism that will protect Guyana’s land and sea resources should the need arise.
After receiving the plan, Prime Minister Phillips said he was very pleased with such a strategy that will ably assist the Government’s programme of disaster preparedness in the sector. He expressed gratitude to the CDC for the work done and singled out Anita Wilson-Layne for her coordination of the stakeholders and compilation of the comprehensive plan.
“We live in a world where nobody likes to talk about disasters, nobody wants a disaster to happen, but the reality is that we have to plan for disasters… simply because disasters disrupt the developmental process of any country and therefore you have to plan for a disaster, so when you’re faced with a disaster you can quickly deal with the disaster, recover and continue the developmental process of the country,” the Prime Minister is quoted as saying.
He further assured Guyanese that with such a plan that commits the efforts of multi-sectoral agencies, our preparedness and response will be to the benefit of all.
The National Emergency Oil Spill Plan was crafted with valuable inputs from the Guyana Marine Conservation Society, Guyana Wildlife Conservation and Management Commission, the Ministry of Legal Affairs, Shipping Association of Guyana, ExxonMobil, Tullow, GuyOil, Repsol, Shell, GAICO Construction and other stakeholders.
The CDC lauded the efforts of the members of the National Oil Spill Contingency Plan working group for their expertise and input into the finished plan. These include Lieutenant Colonel Kester Craig, Captain Salim October and Anita Wilson-Layne from CDC; Capt John Flores and Joel Hinds of MARAD, Thandiwe Benn of GEA; Lt (CG) Roul Williams, Lt (CG) Luther Singh both of the GDF; Aminah Damon-McPherson, Melinda Franklin, Michael Harding all of the EPA, Marissa Foster of the Department of Energy and Paul Williams from the GGMC.
