The National Oil Spill Committee (NOSC) along with other local and international agencies participated in a simulated oil spill activity on Tuesday in Berbice as part of the US_led EXERCISE TRADEWINDS 2023.
A release on Thursday from the Civil Defence Commission (CDC) said that the simulation included a response and a proactive phase to a fictitious incident involving spilled fuel in the Berbice River and residual implications for such a hazard. The NOSC is made up of a number of agencies including the CDC and the Maritime Administration Department (MARAD).
The CDC release reported that the simulation was launched into action at the Skeldon Sugar Estate which functioned as the command centre for the exercise, CGX Palmyra as the staging area and Number 61 Beach as the impact zone/staging area.
Apart from the practical simulation, there was a two-day Tabletop Exercise which allowed the NOSC to utilize their planning, coordinating and operational skills. Participants in the exercise were divided into groups based on their agency and expertise. Command, Logistics, Operations, Planning, and Finance and Administration all had separate but coordinating roles which fostered response cohesion. Those groups were then tasked to replicate what was learnt in the field which will be necessary in the eventuality of an oil spill. The Tabletop Exercise was facilitated by The Response Group (TRG), an American Disaster Risk Management entity.
Additionally, the CDC said that the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) and the World Food Programme (WFP) executed a five-day logistics workshop aimed at bolstering existing logistics systems for response mechanisms. That workshop introduced software that will make several tasks more efficient for logistics professionals, the CDC said.
