I have attended several mock drills for disaster management in the USA,, and dont believe an expensive foreign junket is needed to implement a disaster management plan in Goa. Agencies like the Police, Fire Brigade, Health Services need to identify an individual within their department to meet with his/her counterparts. A Safety and Disaster Management position needs to be established, to conduct regular meetings and to conduct mock drills. The rest is plain commensense. Mock drills with persons designated to evaluate the response to the situation are essential to pinpoint weaknesses in response, communication etc. etc. Situations that can be simulated include, collapsing building, floods, cyclones, major fires, train crashes or de-railments, plane crashes factory disasters, etc. Each situation may need a different response. In large scale situations such as floods, public buildings such as schools need to be identified all over Goa to serve as temporary housing, food preparation and delivery to people deisplaced by the emergency needs to be discussed and planned in case of emergencies, response by medical personnel, ambulances,, fire brigade etc. All commonsense. Responses to specific situations can be discussed in brainstorming sessions conducted by the Safety and Disaster Management official.
