The event is held in cooperation with strategic partners

Abu Dhabi City Municipality - 5 april 2015:

The Emergency & Crises Office at the Abu Dhabi City Municipality has carried out a live exercise for coping with emergencies, crises and disasters in cooperation with a number of strategic partners namely: Emergencies, Crises And Disasters Management Team at the Abu Dhabi City Municipality, National Emergency, Crises and Disasters Management Authority represented by the National Coordination and Response Office - Abu Dhabi, Internal Roads and Infrastructure Division, Department of Municipal Affairs, Traffic and Patrols Department, Abu Dhabi Police, General Directorate of Civil Defence, Health Authority Abu Dhabi, Al Ain Municipality, Western Region Municipality, and the Management of Business Sustainability at the General Secretariat Executive of the Council.

This exercise reflects the endeavours of the Municipal System of Abu Dhabi in bolstering partnership relationships & coordination with the concerned corporate strategic partners in the Emirate with the aim of developing an effective cooperative framework for coping with emergencies, crises and disasters in a scientific and systematic manner that contributes to providing the highest standards of security and safety to the community, and enhance the concept of the Crises and Disasters Management Authority. The event also underscores the keenness of the Municipal System to empower participants and familiarize them with the practices and skills in a scientific manner, particularly as regards coordinating the business process and emergency, crises and disasters management on the one hand, and raising the awareness of the crises management on the other.

Engineer Abdul Aziz Zurub, Director of Emergency & Crises Office, Abu Dhabi City Municipality, said: "This drill illustrates the mission and commitment of the Abu Dhabi City Municipality  towards nurturing a safe environment, providing effective and competent work teams capable of combating crises, disasters and emergencies in a highly professional manner, and establishing a coordinative platform that contributes to mitigating key risks threatening community members, infrastructure and facilities in the event of any disaster, God forbids. Thus bringing all of these entities concerned with crises, disasters and emergencies together aims at identifying a specific and common process for combating any events, affirms the sound planning and endeavours to take preventive measures and guards against any eventuality, and offers training on how to cope with them in a scientific manner & strategic planning that would minimize the consequences and repercussions of any problem, incident or disaster.

"In view of the participation of several entities of considerable weight and vital role in combating emergencies, crises and disasters, this drill contributes to enabling these entities to benefit from expertise & practices, screen ideas and come with understandings that will enhance the response and handling of any emergency. It will also step up the ability of exercising control during crises, and coordinate common efforts towards tackling emergencies, crises and disasters. The drill also aims to enhance the readiness of various work teams at the Abu Dhabi City Municipality  and other entities in dealing with all eventualities within the realms of their responsibility, besides stepping the communication with all government of relevance to emergency management.

"The Abu Dhabi City Municipality has witnessed considerable improvement in the procedures of emergency, crises and disasters management, and the emergencies, crises and the Municipality's disasters management policy and executive plan have been endorsed in 2014. Procedures relating to reporting and follow-up of emergencies, crises and disasters cases have been revamped and work is currently underway in preparing an operation room for managing emergencies and crises in accordance with the standards of the National Emergency, Crises and Disasters Management Authority, and the highest international practices, and state-of-the-art equipment as well as electronic systems have been provided to facilitate the emergency management. The risks matrix at the Municipality's level, which stems out of the core risks endorsed for the Municipal System by the Emergency, Crises and Disasters Committee at the Municipal System in agreement with the National Coordination and Response Office - Abu Dhabi, has been identified. Work is progressing in developing a software for the emergency, crises and disasters management system in Abu Dhabi city such that it connected with the all the concerned sectors of the Municipality as well as the Municipal System and the National Coordination and Response Office. About 3500 monthly calls are received through the emergency number of the Municipality and they are being classified according to the risks matrix and tackled instantly according to the classification of the risk," he continued.

There were 34 high-risk emergency cases which were responded to within the scope of the Municipality, and a special budget has been set aside for preparation, response and recovery from emergency cases.

About 11 emergency plans have been developed in the Abu Dhabi City Municipality supporting most business and activities that have direct relationship with emergency cases, and field teams have been set up to cope with all events of relevance to the Municipality. All of these steps have taken in implementation of the vision of Abu Dhabi Government aimed at ensuring the continuity of business & services, and out of its keenness to be optimally prepared besides raising the competency of emergencies, crises and disasters team at the Abu Dhabi City Municipality. This will enable the provision of appropriate operational procedures for managing crisis and training internal & external partners on their roles and responsibilities, and mapping out a business process & suitable series of procedures which must be effective and built on joint cooperation between stakeholders, besides assessing their potentials and abilities.

About these core objectives, Zurub stated the joint exercise with the strategic partners comprised a host of objectives namely:

1.      Verifying the effectiveness of procedures, preparedness and response of the Emergencies & Crises Management System in Abu Dhabi City Municipality.

2.     Aligning the procedures of emergencies and crises at the Abu Dhabi City Municipality with the objectives of emergencies, crises and disasters committee at the Municipal System as well as the objectives of emergencies & crises management team, Abu Dhabi Emirate.

3.     Preparing the crisis management plan (internal)

4.     Detailing and documenting the roles & responsibilities of participating entities

5.     Developing a work process and a series of procedures for managing crises and effective coordination between entities.

6.     Assessing the existing abilities and potentials of participating entities.

7.     Lessons learnt from the exercise and the implementation of suitable improvements.

8.     Training team leaders on planning & operations management techniques

9.     Verifying the readiness and integration of systems

Zurub further added: "The exercise has achieved all its key objectives set out and work is underway on improvements with the aim of uplifting the abilities and skills of the teams tasked with tackling crises, disasters and emergencies.

"The exercise included visualizing an imaginary serious accident on a bridge resulting in a full block of the road leading to Abu Dhabi city and disrupting the traffic flow from Sheikh Khalifa Street inbound to the capital. Under this scenario, the participating entities prepared the crisis management plan, and apportioned the roles & responsibilities of the participating parties. They also charted out a work process and a series of procedures for managing the crisis, maintaining effective coordination between entities, assessing the capabilities and resources of participants, drawing lessons from the exercise, implementing the suitable improvements, training team leaders on planning and operations management technique, and verifying the readiness & integration of all systems. Reporting & follow-up procedures of accidents and emergencies were carried out, roles and responsibilities in the exercise were specified, and procedures were developed for coping with these cases were developed, besides that conclusions were derived to identify the points of strength and weakness in the procedures of tackling similar accidents.

"The Emergency and Crises Office, in collaboration with the concerned bodies, have developed well-rehearsed and systematic plans as well as the trained cadres for coping with crises. Work is progressing in raising the awareness of the community about this matter in conjunction with the procedures and preparations made for tackling various types of emergencies, crises and disasters," he concluded.

It is worth-mentioning that during the sand storm the swept through the area, the Abu Dhabi City Municipality sent 3500 text messages to consultancy offices and public contractors in the building and construction sector to cease work during the storm as part of the Municipality's keenness on protecting the health and safety of workers, and implementing the highest standards of health and occupational safety.

-Ends-

© Press Release 2015