Good Strategy for Civil - Essay Example

NAME : XXXXXXXXXX TUTOR : XXXXXXXXXX TITLE : XXXXXXXXXXX COURSE : XXXXXXXXXX INSTITUTION : XXXXXXXXXX @2009 Introduction A strategy is a complex and organized plan of action planned to accomplish a specific goal. When it comes to civil protection, we define a strategy as policy which is adopted to help people to handle natural, industrial and ecological catastrophes. Its overall aim is to minimize the losses associated with such catastrophes, which can be environmental, human, financial or social. On the other hand, civil protection is a tremendous multifaceted organization, in which various stakeholders and professionalism are drawn in through the need to communicate and work together, so that they can come up with competent outcomes. Therefore, a strategy in civil protection refers to a set of measures undertaken to prevent the occurrence of a disaster or to moderate its impact, to save human life and material goods from harm when disaster hits, to assist those affected to return to normal life in the dawn of a disaster. Disasters can be natural or technological which means they are man-made. Examples of natural disaster may strike include, flood, drought, forest, landslides, earthquakes among others where as examples of technological disasters include, oil spills, industrial fire or forest fire among others. Abu Dhabi frequently experiences major disasters both natural and technological catastrophes such as water stress, terrorist attacks as well as technology catastrophes like industrial fire and chemical spills. Therefore, it is imperative to come up with an efficient strategy for civil protection to reduce destruction of human life and property in the event of a catastrophe. Such a strategy should contain the elements discussed below for it to be effective in risk prevention and reduction in the event of a natural disaster. A good strategy for civil protection for Abu Dhabi should include the aspect of international cooperation as one way of dealing with a natural catastrophe. Such a strategy should explain how countries are going to work together as regard civil protection of their citizens, their surroundings, possessions and cultural tradition in the case of a natural disaster happening within the area of concern. It should also visibly explain the international responsibility of countries that are involved in the provision of civil protection. Hence, it should come up with proper communication and management systems with other countries when confronting a catastrophe. Abu Dhabi may cooperate with other countries as regards issues of mutual assistance, research and development, exchange of information and technology. For example, the water problem in Abu Dhabi can only be solved if it cooperates with other GCC member countries in non-conventional water technology where these countries choose to possess and restrict water desalination and treatment technology in a definite period of time, say 15 years, and apportion substantial funds to realize this objective. Apart from Cooperating with other countries, such a strategy should also work hand in hand with other organizations, whether they are private or public, for them to succeed in protecting their citizens from any harm with can result from the occurrence of natural disasters. Example of such organizations includes the Red Cross, the police force, the Media, Universities, Civil expert’s organizations and Volunteers among others. In this way, civil protection professionals from different countries can come up with good practices which can advance Abu Dhabi’s general capability for dealing with catastrophes. This will enable civil protection experts in Abu Dhabi to come up with world’s best disaster-response strategy. A good strategy should lay out clear guidelines as to how its citizens are going to be informed about the possibility of an occurrence of a natural disaster. This will ensure that citizens obtain adequate details as regard a specific disaster which is about to hit them. If possible, it is important for such information to be available in their own language so that they can understand it clearly. In this way, they are in a position to protect them more efficiently. A good strategy meant for protecting the citizens should noticeably describe the methods which the authorities concerned with matters of civil protection will use to create awareness as concerns the effects that should be anticipated from a specific natural disaster. It should also clearly outline the actions and the manner in which people should behave in such kind of situations in order to moderate the destruction of human being and property. National public awareness programmes or campaigns are some of the efficient methods for creating awareness among citizens as concerns natural disaster safety and how they are supposed to respond. The media can be can be used to create this awareness as it can be a very powerful and successful device in this case. Educational programmes as concerns natural disasters should be introduced in public school system. For example, the citizens of Abu Dhabi should be made to clearly understand the threats associated with oil spill. It is important to able to respond quickly and efficiently when disasters hits. This can only be possible if the citizens are well aware of the potential risks involved in a specific disaster and have been taught how to react calmly and quickly in emergency situations. The other paramount element that should not be left out when it comes to civil protection is resources availability. A good strategy for civil protection should assess the accessibility of economic resources and finances to be employed in the occurrence of a natural disaster. In addition, such a strategy should ensure that financial instruments available are utilized properly incase of natural disaster, for example calamity fund, micro-credit finance and community funds. It is therefore imperative to set some money aside to be used specifically in the event of a natural disaster. Hence, such a strategy should come up with an annual budget for natural disaster risk management. Other support action which should be planned for involve putting up measures which ensures that interventional resources, such as first aiders, firefighters, assessment and coordination team and ambulances among others get to the disaster site on time. A good strategy for civil protection should have an emergence plan in place to be employed in the case of unexpected natural disaster. Such an emergency plan should set aside emergence funds for natural disaster response; come up with national and community storage facilities for emergency relief items such as food and medicine, tents. Furthermore, it should set up emergence measures such as establishing and managing a common emergency communication and information system, for example, creating an emergence call number. This will ensure that Abu Dhabi citizens are able to get in touch with emergency services as soon as possible when faced with a distressing situation. This also ensures a quick and effective reaction to any emergency situation. A good strategy for civil protection should come up with an operation Scheme to be followed in the occurrence of a natural disaster. It should specify the authority responsible for handling natural disasters at the national and local levels. It should also indicate who is responsible for coordination of disaster response in case of terrorist attacks, oil spills or other natural disasters. A strategy meant for civil protection should lay out the procedures for carrying out risk assessment, prevention and reduction. It should therefore come up with projects intended to reduce the danger of a whole variety of natural disasters and industrial incidents. Such projects should also be designed to reduce the impacts of catastrophes when they occur. It should come up with clear code of behavior and procedures to be followed for the prevention of catastrophes and severe technological disasters. For example, such a strategy should propose actions to be taken to handle and manage theoretical risks associated with terrorist attacks when employing biological, technical and nuclear weapons. Projects designed to improve the psychological aftercare people affected by the disaster should be implemented. Projects should also be designed to better the training skills and knowledge for civil protection professionals like firefighters, first aiders and other emergency workers. Projects should be designed to ensure that Abu Dhabi civil protection experts learn as much as they can from past catastrophes, so that they can tackle future natural disasters more efficiently. A civil protection strategy should lay down a procedure for a thorough recruitment of personnel so that only those who are qualified are employed to ensure effective operation. It should also endeavor to develop and maintain competent personnel through training and development. An efficient civil protection strategy should set up training programme for intervention teams, for experts and for the assessment or coordination team. It should also organize workshops, seminars and pilot projects on major aspects of intervention. By so doing, the civil protection personnel will always be ready and equipped to deal with any emergency situation. In conclusion, a good strategy for civil protection should contain the following element; international and community cooperation, creating risk awareness, resources availability, through recruitment and training of civil protection workers, carryout risk assessment and prevention, come up with an operation scheme and an emergency plan. Only then can such a strategy be effective in protecting its citizens and property from harm caused by natural disasters. Reference Coping with catastrophes-Coordinating civil protection in the European Union: Luxembourg: office for official Publications of the European Communities, 2002. Read More