No matter how well one prepares for a disaster, there will always be those initial moments of panic, when no one knows what to do and how to cope. But planning and carrying out exercises for such eventualities helps restore order when chaos would otherwise reign. Natalino Fenech looks at contingency planning in Malta.

The drawing up of contingency plans for the protection of life, property and economic resources in case of natural and technological disasters that may hit the Maltese Islands is the responsibility of the Civil Protection Department.

The department has been operating for the past five years and is still being developed. Previously it was the Armed Forces of Malta and the Police Force that used to fulfil the department's functions.

The main functions of the department are to offer civil protection services and to coordinate the resources and services of various ministries which could be called upon to respond in a national or regional disaster or in an emergency.

CPD director Peter Cordina said the department liases with the police, the army, the health authorities as well as voluntary organisations to achieve its aims. It also carries out vulnerability and risk assessment studies and promotes public awareness of civil protection issues.

Mr Cordina said a scientific committee composed of a number of experts in different areas of civil protection has been set up and is helping draw up contingency plans as well as give advice as required by the department.

Various voluntary organisations in Malta and Gozo, such as the Malta Red Cross Society, St John Rescue Corps and St John Ambulance Brigade, the scouts and girl guides associations, are affiliated to the department and can be roped in during times of need, Mr Cordina explained.

The department also incorporates an assistance and rescue force directly responsible for fire fighting and rescue on land and pollution control at sea. The force intervenes promptly in case of fire and rescue on land, flooding, sea salvage, rescue and anti-pollution support at sea or any other natural or man-made disaster situation which requires the immediate assistance of a public force or special equipment.

The force is equipped with 27 fire fighting vehicles donated by the Italian government under the Fifth Financial Protocol, together with two rescue launches and two fire fighting and pollution vessels also donated under the protocol.

Training of personnel is carried out on a regular basis both in Malta and abroad, the latter being mostly under the auspices of the Italian government and the Euro-Med pilot project on civil protection.

Exercises are carried out on a regular basis locally. Mr Cordina said publicity is not usually given to such exercises but CPD staff carry out training in many areas to simulate many situations.

"Recently we carried out an exercise at the Maghtab landfill on how to handle chemical waste. It might seem a trivial exercise but such training helps personnel get geared to situations that may arise if someone unknowingly or otherwise sends chemical waste to a landfill without prior warning or if some form of chemical spillage or contamination takes place," Mr Cordina said.

"Because my men are on the go all the time, that also keeps them in a state of preparedness. CPD staff are called out in many situations and that keeps them on their toes."

A Civil Protection operation centre has been set up using the most recent sophisticated equipment, again donated by the Italian government.

In January 2003, Malta joined the EU Mechanism for Civil Protection. All EU countries are expected to assist each other in case of disasters and this assistance may also be extended to third countries.

"The Civil Protection Department has launched calls for help following hurricanes in the US, tremors in Pakistan, in the wake of requests by the EU. But we also plan ahead in case, God forbid, something major happens to us.

"Of course, one would hope that others would help us, as I am sure they would, but we also keep stocks of blankets, some medicines, water and food items that will be used in case of disasters here.

"Blankets are often donated by hotels and other establishments, when, from time to time, they replenish their stocks. Medicines and foodstuffs are changed from time to time to ensure fresh stocks are in hand. These are usually sent abroad when calls for help are made if the items are still well within their use-by date," Mr Cordina said.

CPD staff also offer assistance in case of floods, collapsed buildings and are involved in the rescue of persons.

"A look at statistics shows that my men are anything but idle. Last year, 53 people were rescued by CPD staff. That's an average of one a week. There were 1,631 oil spills last year, averaging between four and five a day. My men are involved in clean-up operations. There were 1,387 grass fires, amounting to an average of four a day, but with peaks of up to 12 a day in summer, and 192 cases of house fires, practically one every other day. Most of these are started by candles or are kitchen fires," he said.

"If people were a little more careful, a lot of what we deal with could be avoided. People should be responsible for what they do and for their belongings. On a personal level, people need not draw up plans and documents about what they would do in case something crops up, but it pays to think about simple things such as where to exit from in case you have to because of a fire.

"Prevention is better than cure and thinking before doing something always helps in whatever one does. This applies to anything from placing a ladder properly before climbing it to where to leave things such as matches and detergents if you have small children," Mr Cordina said.

Healthy preparation

Dennis Vella Baldacchino, the principal medical officer in charge of disaster preparedness and emergency services at the Health Department, is a strong believer in contingency planning at all levels.

"Contingency planning is something that some in authority think about but there should be a culture to encourage families to think a bit about it too," he said.

"It might sound trivial or foolish, but have you ever thought about where you can go, from where you can escape, if your kitchen or bedroom caught fire?"

His question might seem trivial but considering there were 192 house fires last year, which works out to a fire every other day, it is not at all absurd.

Dr Vella Baldacchino feels there is not enough awareness about the need for contingency planning. Few people, if any, have ever thought about family disaster planning but it is important that they know how to cope on a rainy day.

"It's better if the rainy day we plan for never comes, but if it does, forewarned is forearmed," he said.

From time to time, the department organises exercises that help staff familiarise themselves with various scenarios. Exercises can be simple or very complex involving other bodies such as the army, the police or civil protection personnel.

In 2002, a national hijack exercise was carried out. It was organised by surprise to test the level of preparedness of all the agencies that could become involved.

"Ideally, such an exercise is carried out every year but they are rather costly and time consuming. But such exercises are money well spent as they identify your weak spots and show you what you are doing right," he said.

A series of bottlenecks were pre-planned so that the teams taking part would face the task of handling them.

As it was just an exercise, where there were no real casualties, a list of fictitious injuries was drawn up for each passenger and the doctors examining them after the plane was stormed had to go by that list to determine what treatment each passenger needed.

A shed was converted into a reception area for casualties. Here patients had to be sorted into three categories: urgent cases whose life was in imminent danger; serious cases that could wait and light injuries.

"The idea is that you have to see who needs to go to hospital first to avoid creating congestion there. You also have to plan well as ambulances are in short supply and you don't want to send a patient with a badly broken arm simply because he is howling, only to end up without an ambulance when a patient with life-threatening abdominal injuries is brought in," he said.

Although such large-scale exercises are not held often, fire drills and other exercises involving small-scale scenarios are carried out regularly.

"We try not to disturb the casualty department but such exercises are important," he said. They also help to enhance teamwork between all those involved.

In 2002, the department set up a team of six doctors who have the necessary equipment in their car and who are always on call in case an accident happens.

"It's like a flying squad, with the difference that the doctors have volunteered to do it and they are paid a real pittance to be on call. But it is very efficient and the response time is very, very short. It's important that you have a trained doctor on site within minutes in major accidents," Dr Vella Baldacchino said.

The department will shortly have a decontamination tent which can be set up in hospital.

"In case of chemical contamination, ideally people should be decontaminated on site. The Civil Protection Department has such a unit but experience has shown that people do not wait for the civil protection personnel to turn up but go straight to hospital, hence having such a unit is important as the least thing you want in a hospital is any form of contamination.

"I hope that we will never need it. But if we do, we will have it and if you don't have it when it is needed, then you will realise that the money spent on such things is not money down the drain," he said.