The upper legislative chamber of the Rwandan parliament passed a new bill on disaster management. It is the first ever bill in Rwanda that will address the management, prevention, and mitigation of causes of natural and human- generated disasters in the East African nation.
Besides disaster prevention, it includes rescue efforts during a disaster, the conduction of community awareness programmes and training personnel to be prepared to cope with a disaster.
The new bill has been approved in the aftermath of many occasions in which families had to leave their homes due to rainfall. All in all, natural disasters cost the tiny East African nation a total budget of Rwf 1 billion (1,4 millions USD) annually.
