`Ex Flood Gate 2010’, an exercise to test the national response system to a flooding incident in Guyana will be conducted by the Civil Defence Commission (CDC).
The exercise, Director of the CDC Colonel Chabilall Ramsarup said during a table top exercise last week, is the first of its kind and will be conducted in limited areas in regions four and five; possibly in the vulnerable areas of Mahaica, Mahaicony and Abary.
In a press release on December 15, the Government Information Agency (GINA) reported that the objectives of the exercise include “testing the level of the interaction/collaboration among agencies and the decision making process taken with the National Emergency Operation Centre (NEOC)”, as well as, “to identify resource gaps that could affect an effective response and those that exist within the various plans and to test the effectiveness of the Early Warning System”.
Six sub-committees, GINA said, were involved in the table top exercise including food, safe water, infrastructure, shelter, health and agriculture. The sub-committees, according to them, are headed by the relevant ministries and their roles will be in line with the agencies they represent.
The CDC in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme, GINA reported Ramsarup as saying, had engaged in much planning and the Ex Flood Gate 2010 is a way of testing the plans to identify the gaps and rectify them while capitalizing on the strengths.
Most of the participants, GINA further said, were from the Guyana Defence Force as they will be responsible for managing the NEOC in such a disaster.
