Port Command Post tested   |23 June 2023

The launch of the workshop yesterday (Photo: Leanne Alcindor)

•           Four-day desktop exercise gets under way

The Seychelles Ports Authority (SPA) in collaboration with the Disaster Risk Management Division (DRMD) and the World Bank did a desktop exercise yesterday morning at the SPA headquarters, Victoria in order to test local tactical coordination and establishment of an on-scene Port Command Post.

SPA’s head of security, Ronny Alcindor, explained that this exercise started since two years ago. “The port authority already has an evacuation system but we realised it was not complete and there are a lot of reviews to be done and a lot of things missing,” he stated.

Working with the World Bank and with the assistance of DRMD, Mr Alcindor explained that those little gaps are beginning to be identified and fixed.

He said the main problem they figured out was who will step in as a main respondent should something happen.

“Who will take the main decision? Within the four days of training that we are doing currently, we can identify who will take the full responsibility and how we can disseminate that information.”

In addition, Mr Alcindor stated that another main issue to be addressed was a lack of training at SPA itself. When the plans have been updated, Mr Alcindor noted that something which he will personally take on board as head of security is to make sure that the staff receive appropriate training.

During the scenarios, there were things thrown in scenarios to make it unpredictable and see how the staff were able to improvise.

“On my side I am very satisfied, because when something is simple, you are not learning much. I see it as more advanced for us because it helps us,” said Mr Alcindor.

Paul Hayden, senior disaster risk management consultant with the World Bank, explained that the on-scene command post has been written into the Seychelles system since 2019.

“So we regularly rehearse all of the key players from the different ministries,  departments and agencies so that they get the chance to get together, to work together as one team to resolve a theoretical agency.”

Furthermore, Mr Hayden made it clear that there is an avoidance of “Hollywood scenarios”, which means crazy disastrous events but they do come up with very challenging theoretical disasters that is practised. “Then all of the participants can say that if this happened today, what would you do?”

He continued by explaining that the learning not only helps the individuals if they have to respond for real but also any gaps that may be present can be identified, if new plans are needed or new equipment.

“In that way, we can constantly work to improve safety.”

In terms of the actual exercise itself, Mr Hayden disclosed that it is not a live test therefore there is no examination being done on performance or anything like that. What is happening is that senior management from different departments and agencies, especially the port authority, DRMD, the police and SFRSA to name a few, will be giving a briefing. “Every day these workers work in their own agency dealing with emergencies. What we are doing here is practising for emergencies which might happen, we hope never but may happen once in a lifetime. If that happens we need to work together in a completely different way.”

Mr Hayden expounded that there is a designated command post. The office in which the training was taking place is actually the room that would be used if there was a genuine emergency.

“We have got the actual commanders who if the event happened today, these are the people who would be responding here, these are the people who would be responsible for making these life and death decisions. Everyone is doing their own job but working collaboratively at a scale which normally you would not face.”

He further went on to clarify that any exercise by its nature has a little bit of make believe. He described that there is what is known as “inject” which means that as the pupils are resolving the emergency, if it looks too simple there can be other situations thrown in to make it more complicated.

“We keep it unpredictable so that it is designed to be very challenging and that they have to think about how they would work together in this moment. So there is always limitations because it is a table top overlay.”

He concluded by stating that there is a National Integrated Management Plan as a contingency. This plan applies for all hazards so it would not matter if there was a fire at the port, the government agencies come together to resolve the issue. It was even used during the Covid-19 pandemic. “It is resilient and it is robust.”

Chief risk management officer of DRMD, Daniel Cetoupe, explained the hypothetical scenario that was present during the training exercise. There was an explosion on the port following a boat being repaired and from there “we see the escalation where there are different agencies and authorities which needed to get involved”.

He stated that the main goal of the exercise is to take a collective decision in being able to figure out what they need, what the objective is and what to prioritise in terms of resources.

“We also take into account the method of communication on a silver level and national level.”

Through the technical support of the World Bank, DRMD following the operationalisation of National Integrity Management Plan has a series of plans that needs to be reviewed.

“We have taken the importance of the Port and Airport and the economic importance it has on the country. We are trying to see their plan to make it international. Their internal plan is ok but the problem is when the responders arrive, how do they connect with the plan?”

He concluded by stating that responders will have the procedure to intervene in any disaster crisis.

Sunny Esparon