President requests action plan for landfill fire management |12 October 2022

President Ramkalawan chairing the meeting yesterday (Photo: Louis Toussaint)

• Each agency to present their plan in two weeks’ time

By Patsy Canaya

All agencies directly involved with the Providence landfill fire have each been given two weeks to come up with their concrete Plan of Action for fire management at the site.

The decision was taken at a meeting at State House yesterday afternoon, chaired by President Wavel Ramkalawan, where all agencies involved in the operation gave their reports of the incident, from when the time they were each notified of the fire, their immediate reaction and subsequent action and involvement in the whole operation until the blaze was put out several days later.

Present were the Seychelles Fire and Rescue Services Agency (SFRSA), the Disaster Risk Management Division (DRMD), the police, the Landscape and Waste Management Agency (LWMA), the Industrial Estates Authority (IEA), and government departments, namely environment, land use, transport.

When welcoming the representatives of various agencies, President Ramkalawan said the aim of the post-mortem meeting was to discuss how to better prepare themselves, address weaknesses and come up with solutions for the future.

The Head of State reiterated his call for the agencies to operate as a team, with one mission.

“Silos have to disappear; we must understand that we are all working for one aim and that is to manage the fire and put it out, so we should all work towards that one goal,” he said.

Each agency then outlined the events from the first day of the operation till the last day and were asked to identify the weaknesses observed.

Over two dozen weaknesses were identified, which included lack of coral fill to cover the areas ablaze, lack of fire equipment to combat the blaze, access to water, response time before a proper plan could be implemented, poor coordination among agencies and a breakdown in communication, among others.

The agencies were then invited to propose solutions which President Ramkalawan said would be the course of action for all future landfill fires.

“I do not want theories anymore; I want practical solutions, that will be implemented and will work,” he told the meeting.

Among the points raised was the need to review the management of the landfill and to come up with a landfill operation plan, introduction of a national emergency plan in the event of a fire at the site, review the stockpiling of coral fill, identify and purchase the right equipment for landfill fires.

It was also proposed that all new police and military recruits should be trained in firefighting to assist firefighters in the event of a major fire and that first aid course should be mandatory for all of them.

It was agreed that all the agencies directly involved with the operation, including the Ministry of Health, which was absent at yesterday’s meeting, should now work on their Plan of Action, which will be presented at a second meeting to be chaired by the president in a fortnight.

Speaking to local media after the three-hour meeting, DRMD’s principal management disaster officer, Daniel Cetoupe, said although the country has a National Integrated Emergency Management Plan, which sets out a framework for each agency at different level of command, it does not have a specific plan for landfill.

“There have been several attempts to come up with a plan for the site but it has never materialised but today with the actions taken, it will be one of the biggest outcomes of this post-mortem meeting, which is how we will handle any emergency situation at the landfill, not just fires,” said Mr Cetoupe.

He explained that the plan will not be people-centred as was the case previously, but rather institutionalised “where it will outline the direct function within a ministry, department or agency. So instead of a big document sitting on the shelf, where nobody would care to read, we will now have a simple document in an easy format which will be understandable to all, and each person will know their role”.

DRMD’s mandate is to compile all the Action plans from the various agencies into a concrete national plan of action to manage landfill fires, and it will also be the lead organisation to ensure it is implemented correctly.

The next meeting will be held on October 27.