This country is more ready for this year's rainy season than it was last year, according to Office of Disaster Preparedness and Management (ODPM) Chief Executive Officer, Dr Stephen Ramroop.

Speaking on the flood warnings issued by the Meteorological Services on Wednesday, Ramroop said: "We are much better prepared than last year. We have had a series of meetings with the key government agencies as well as the community stakeholders and we have formed a national platform that involve a number of key stakeholders to talk about, to learn and to carry information back to the communities on the different programmes to reduce the impact on some of these disasters and hazards."

He said the ODPM had launched its "readiness programme" where persons representing major stakeholders including the Local Government Ministry's Disaster Preparedness units, the Fire Services, the Police, the Emergency Health Services, the Ministries of Public Utilities and Community Development get together every morning.

"At 8.30 a.m. we have what we call an 8.30 brief at the ODPM where a number of these keys stakeholders call in and let us know what are the activities they are planning for the day, what they have experienced over the past day and what they wish to do in the next few weeks in terms of their programmes," he said.

Ramroop said he believed most people living in the flood prone areas were also prepared for the rainy season and impending disasters because the ODPM visited a number of these communities and educated the people.

"We walked through the villages and carried the councillors, the disaster unit and talked with the people and although we can't predict how much the people have learnt, largely what we have found is that quite a lot of people in the Valsayn area, the St Helena area, are prepared. Although they live in flood prone areas they work with the floods," he said.

He said the people who would be mostly affected by the floods would be people who recently moved into the flood prone areas or those who did not listen to the advice given by the ODPM and other stakeholders.

"There are a lot of people who have not heeded our advice and have built flat houses in flood-prone areas and so now they have to suffer.

"It is an ongoing process but we are satisfied that lot of work has been done by the local agencies, by the communities, by some of the people who experience the floods and we feel that there is a certain amount of resilience much better than last year," he added.