KOTA KINABALU: Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) intends to coordinate and work closer with the National Disaster Management Agency (Nadma) on disaster management.

UMS, via its Natural Disaster Research Centre (NDRC), aims to foster collaborations so that both parties would be able to find ways to minimise the impact of natural disasters and better manage disasters in Sabah.

She said this following a courtesy call from a delegation from Nadma to UMS recently.

Nadma policy deputy chief director Zamakhsari Hanipah, who led the delegation, expressed interest in the idea and welcomed the proposal, saying such working relations were in line with the disaster risk reduction (DRR) policy 2030.

He said information gathered through disaster reduction risk research and related programmes can be used as guidelines or reference by Nadma, especially for disaster management here in Borneo (Sabah and Sarawak).

After the courtesy call, the delegation had the opportunity to visit UMS’ earthquake monitoring system SEISCOMP3 at the NDRC laboratory, and were briefed on its technical functions by the NDRC research officer Eldawaty Madran.

Earlier, Nadma briefed the UMS group on the recently launched National DRR policy 2030 at the federal level, saying that the state level launch was expected sometime soon.

“Thus, the DDR strategic plan for Sabah is needed to seal the implementation of the national DDR policy 2030,” said Zamakhsari.