Guyana will soon have a coordinated Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) regarding oil spills, GINA said.
A workshop hosted by the Civil De-fence Commission (CDC) with assistance from the United States (US) Southern Command was held this week at the Grand Coastal Inn for local stakeholders.
The stakeholders included the Guyana Defence Force, the Guyana Police Force, Guyana Fire Service, Guyana Prison Service, Ministry of Public Health and Exxon Mobil.
Director General CDC Col (Ret’d), Chabilall Ramsarup, said the workshop reviewed policies, plans and procedures currently in place and examined the roles and responsibilities of all agencies.
“What we don’t have is a coordination plan on the national side and a number of institutions are expected to respond if we do have an oil spill; God forbid,… we have to have a preparedness plan in place for the coordination of what happens on ground if something happens. CDC is tasked with that coordination, but a number of agencies will be involved, once something happens the National Emergency Operations Centre (NEOC) is going to be activated and a number of organisations will find themselves in CDCs headquarters to plan and execute a response”, Ramsarup explained.
Lt. Col Mike Forson, Officer in Charge of the Florida National Guard team who conducted the training, explained that their role in the workshop is to help facilitate it and share their 25 plus years of experience with local stakeholders.
“We have a lot of experience being a Gulf of Mexico state with deep water horizon, lots of insight with how various agencies including the military had been involved in that, how we assisted. Our goal is to give you the ingredients focusing on the oil spill aspect of it to help you come up with a plan to see in the unfortunate event that something should occur,” Lt Col Mike Forson said, according to GINA.
US firm ExxonMobil found a huge oil deposit last year in Guyana’s waters.
