ASEAN Says Drill Shows Need For Better Emergency Response Coordination

DISASTER MANAGEMENT

"We have drawn some lessons on how we can further improve so we are better prepared in the future," said Raman Letchumanan, head of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) environment and disaster management unit.

Kuala Lumpur (AFP) Sep 21, 2005
Southeast Asia's first joint disaster drill has shown the need for improvements including cutting bureaucracy and improving coordination on the ground, an ASEAN official said Wednesday.

"This was the first exercise and overall it was successful for planning in the future," he told AFP.

Some 200 personnel took part in the drill here Monday, which was aimed at helping the region respond more effectively to events like last year's tsunami tragedy.

The 10-nation exercise operated on the premise that Selangor state, Malaysia's most industrialised region which surrounds the capital Kuala Lumpur, had borne the brunt of a major earthquake.

"We need to improve our coordination amongst the different teams and the operations themselves," Raman said after evaluation meetings. "There has to be coordination between the rescuers and medical personnel and the police. There are so many different personnel involved," he said.

Raman said ASEAN was trying to assess how fast response teams could be coordinated but "there are some bottlenecks" despite systems already in place for contacts between governments.

The exercise "helped us to better understand what are the impediments, if there is any red tape," he said.

In emergencies "we have to mobilise teams very fast so we want to avoid difficulties, whether in transport, customs clearance and immigration."

Rescue and disaster specialists from Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei took part in the exercise centred on a "collapsed" building, while the other seven ASEAN countries sent personnel who acted as referees and observers.

Under the exercise, Malaysia declared a state of emergency and called for help from neighbouring nations. Specialised assistance came from Singapore and Brunei teams who helped to rescue earthquake "victims".

The tsunami triggered by an earthquake last December 26 ravaged Indonesia's Aceh province and killed an estimated 217,000 people in countries around the the Indian Ocean.

Foreign rescue teams including those from ASEAN who responded immediately after the tragedy faced various bureaucratic obstacles that hampered their work.

DISASTER MANAGEMENT

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