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Risk reduction during disasters
Drinking water and sewerage services
must continue function during emergencies and must recover
as quickly as possible after a disaster. These have
proved to be decisive factors in reducing the vulnerability
of the population and of development processes.
Several organizations are working
on a Technical Overview Paper on the many risk factors
facing water and sewerage systems. The draft version
is available at www.cepis.ops-oms.org/bvsade/e/top/top-web.doc
and is open to comments, through 19 November.*
The paper should be ready for
the second World Conference on Disaster Reduction in
Kobe, Japan in early 2005.
*TOP.
Reduction of risks to water and sanitation from natural
disasters (preliminary review version). |
El Salvador
Soyapango Emergency
Puts New Plan to the Test
The ink was barely dry
on the Emergency and Disaster Plan of El Salvador’s
national water and sewerage regulatory body (ANDA), when it
was put into practice because of spillage from a drum of diesel
fuel which flowed into meter boxes before entering the system,
sparking an emergency in heavily populated Soyapango in central
El Salvador. The municipality, with a population of more than
260,000, became the first town to benefit from the new plan
to deal with emergencies and disasters.
Just as the board of
the new Institutional Emergency and Disaster Plan was being
sworn in, ANDA’s customer service center received phone
calls from Soyapango complaining that the water smelled strongly
of diesel fuel and had oily patches. The Soyapango office
immediately drained the contaminated network. (More information
on these measures can be found in the document El Salvador
se Levanta. Las Obras en Salud después del Mitch (San
Salvador, PAHO, 2004), www2.ops.org.sv/tccendoc/el_salvador_se_levanta/index.pdf).
In less than 24 hours, maintenance teams had located the pollutant
and its source in the system, and following procedures set
forth in the Plan, a situation room was set up to direct and
coordinate overall activities.
A
decentralized emergency plan
ANDA is the first water
agency in Central America to have officially adopted an emergency
plan and the mere existence of this tool is a source of pride
for Salvadoran authorities. “The plan alone is a benefit
and reflects our interest in offering consumers an efficient
service focusing on customer care,” stated ANDA's general
manager, Frineé Castillo de Zaldaña. The Plan
is the result of a participatory planning process and has
gained buy-in from directors at headquarters and regional
offices. For further information contact planificacion@anda.gob.sv.
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