Seychelles port’s table top exercise highlights communication deficiency |19 November 2022
The table top exercise yesterday (Photo: Joena Meme)
Seychelles Ports Authority has said the table top exercise to test the efficiency of the ‘Port Victoria Emergency Response Plan’ has identified deficiencies in communication and coordination aspects of the plan and this needs to be addressed promptly.
Port facility security officer Ronny Alcindor made the statement following the one-day exercise at the Seychelles Ports Authority’s (SPA) headquarters yesterday, which saw the participation of around 20 organisations and law enforcement agencies involved with the port’s daily operations.
During yesterday’s exercise, they were to test the efficiency of the plan in the event of two scenarios, namely a bomb threat and a fire.
The participants were given a message transmission form with a scenario and a respondent update form, where they were to write recommended actions.
Mr Alcindor explained that since the SPA is ISPS-compliant (International Ship and Port Facility Security), it has to abide by mandatory international requirements, such as regular drills and exercises. Drills are done every three months and involve security officers, internally, while the other exercises involve other port stakeholders.
“Today, each organisation is familiarising itself with its specific role in case of an incident in the port, how they will react, each person’s role and responsibility to prevent duplication, as well as their response time,” explained Mr Alcindor.
Yesterday’s table top exercise was taking place on a typical normal day, where according to the SPA, the security level was number one which is the normal threat level. According to Mr Alcindor, this is the level at which the minimum protective and security measures are in permanent effect. Security level 2 is an heightened threat level, whereas security level 3 is the exceptional threat level, where the port is closed to all.
“Today is business as usual but there are some preventive measures in place and these are the ones we are testing,” he added.
The exercise was being doing in collaboration with the disaster risk management division (DRMD).
The organisation’s senior disaster management officer Aisha Rachel said the Seychelles Ports Authority is one of its key national partners and being the main entry point for all goods, it has an important economic aspect.
“When the SPA approaches us with their plan, we have to review it, we test certain components to measure its efficiency and then we make recommendations how to improve it”, said Ms Rachel.
Following the exercise, Mr Alcindor said they have identified some deficiencies, mainly with the communication and coordination aspects of the plan.
“Some agencies which were present and which should have been engaged once the emergency plan was activated, were not, so it was a failure in coordination or lack of certain information. We need to address these so the plan is to meet up early next year, where this time all agencies present here today will present their specific plan, to situate themselves with regard to others in such an emergency scenario and amend their plan to fit in with each other so that we are all on the same page,” said Mr Alcindor.
The Seychelles Ports Authority said after the second meeting, it will then plan a full-scale live simulation exercise to test the participants’ real response in the field.
Two of the participants were the Mayor’s office and the Red Cross Society of Seychelles. Speaking to Seychelles NATION, Mayor David Andre said being the focal point in town, his office has to be ‘au fait’ with any emergency plan for the central area.
“We are involved with all town-related preparedness and emergency plans and we need to attend these table top exercises to see and understand the various scenarios and the response of all stakeholders, including our officer,” said Mr Andre.
For her part, the secretary general of the Red Cross Society of Seychelles, Marie-May Bastienne, said as a first respondent, they are called directly or through the Ministry of Health whenever there is a disaster or major national incident.
“So if there is mass casualty, we will activate our contingency plan, which will allow us to decide how to react to the incident, for example how many first aiders to send. Since this is the town area then we will activate those in the vicinity. Depending on the gravity of the incident, we will also decide on whether to seek international assistance if ever the situation is beyond our coping capacity,” explained Ms Bastienne.
The other organisations which took part in the table top exercise were the Seychelles Maritime Safety Authority; Seychelles Public Transport Corporation; Health; Seychelles Petroleum Company; Seychelles Coastguard; Seychelles Fire and Rescue Services Agency; Seychelles Defence Forces; Public Utilities Corporation; Lafarge Cement; Hunt Deltel; Ferox Feed and department of tourism.
Patsy Canaya