RISAN holds confab on disaster management

RISAN holds confab on disaster management

Chuks Udo Okonta

The Risk Surveyors Association of Nigeria (RISAN) has concluded plans to hold its 2012 National Conference with the theme “Human Element in Disaster Management and Loss Prevention” on Thursday, November 1, at Sheraton Lagos Hotel starting from 09:00 am.

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The Conference which is a yearly event under which auspices professional risk surveyors, insurance professionals and operators in the commerce, manufacturing and energy sectors congregate to rub minds on crucial issues  bordering on disaster management, has become necessary due to the prevailing risks in the country.

 In a release by its President Jacob Adeosun, he said the challenges of disaster management require effective solutions to mitigate the recurrent occurrence of losses on roads as well as in commerce and industry resulting from industrial fires and allied perils.

Adeosun noted that the conference is focusing on the impact of human element in disaster management at this year’s parley given the central position which human beings play in managing the challenges of risks. The actions and inactions of human beings aggravate or alleviate the occurrence and impact of every disaster.

He said the conference could not have been more appropriate in Nigeria at a better time than now, when the nation is being ravaged by flooding with its attendant material and human calamities, which could have been minimized through effective disaster recovery plan(s) backed by serious implementation of professionally determined solutions in timely and efficient manner by various levels of government and relevant stakeholders. We are not learning and we do not take actions to control disasters. We always wait for it to happen to us. 

To make the conference robust, he said the association has invited an assemblage of eminent resource persons and risk professionals who are expected to deliver papers on wide ranging areas such as, hazards associated with road and rail transportation; mitigation of explosion and fire in oil industry and effect on communities, as well as controlling huge fire and business disruption losses in manufacturing industries.

The conference will climax with the investiture of Adeosun as the President of the Association for the next two years. A highly resourceful risk engineering surveyor and chartered insurance practitioner, Adeosun would bring his close to three decades experience in risk management and administration to bear as President of RISAN.