A crisis with our city’s Civil Defence?

There’s concern about the state of civil defence in Wellington. The concern is about the staffing level of the city’s Emergency Management Office, due to a restructuring currently underway, and the treatment of volunteers during what MP Peter Dunne recently described as a "chaotic" period.

Civil Defence started in the 1950s as a response to the nuclear threat. It has undergone many changes and the public hasn’t kept up – there’s still a belief that the State is primarily responsible for the preparedness of citizens. After all, who has the capacity to prepare for an atomic bomb nowadays?

But the threat of nuclear war has diminished and today we are focused more on the awesome forces that can be unleashed by mother nature at little notice. Citizens are more than capable of preparing for this type of adversity. It is important the public understand where responsibility lies when it comes to disasters. There are two primary groups who make up Civil Defence: formal agencies and communities.

Formal agencies are operated by the State, businesses, or non-profit organisations such as Wellington Free Ambulance. The Civil Defence and Emergency Management Act 2002 makes local authorities responsible for planning, programmes, and activities related to civil defence emergency management across the four 'R's of emergency management: reduction, readiness, response, and recovery. Thus, by law, the Wellington City Council must have an ability to co-ordinate organisations at times of disasters or hazards.

This co-ordination is important, as best practice is to have a "command and control" system for running emergency services (in New Zealand we use a system called CIMS). In a major emergency where local emergency services require outside help, having a place to co-ordinate the response is essential. In Wellington we have the Wellington Emergency Management Office (also known as WEMO). This is a high-tech building constructed next to a fault line in a tsunami zone near the waterfront. One can only shrug one’s shoulders at the location. In the event of a large emergency this building might be needed by ambulance, police, fire service, utility companies (such as the gas company), government agencies, and the like. There is a back-up facility in Tawa.

Traditionally the staff based in this building have supported the wider community through volunteer training, resources, and public education. However these functions are not limited to local government... in fact there is a wider ethical issue regarding who actually 'owns' Civil Defence. In the opinion of both myself and the New Zealand Resilience Trust, it is the community.

A community can be defined as a group of people who live close to each other and share things in common. The most basic community is the family, then neighbours, then suburbs, and then towns or cities. We all understand the responsibility each of us has to care for our immediate family - in the event of a major earthquake most people would be initially concerned about their loved-ones.

Families - and communities - are important because as humans we are pretty rubbish at going it alone. To survive we often need the support of others, whether it be their resources, love, advice, or networks. The more support we have, the better we survive.

That is important enough to say again: the more support we have, the better we survive.

In a disaster the closer you are to others the more support you will be able to access. Not only in the immediate aftermath, but in the months that follow when your world has been turned upside-down.

There are people in your community who have dedicated themselves to having the knowledge, skills, and networks to support and educate the public about disaster preparedness. These Civil Defence volunteers share an understanding of the urgency of our combined need along with a passion for emergency preparedness.

Until recently the Wellington City Council co-ordinated, trained, and equipped the volunteers. But the responsibility belongs to all of us. Our volunteers are under-resourced and few-and-far between - where there was once a force in excess of 4,000 there are now around 300.

While we wait for the city council to do something about this... how about taking action yourself? If you truly understand the importance of Civil Defence then get in touch with your local volunteer CD group. If you don't have one, consider starting one. If you need advice, contact the NZRT or the City Council, or call the Community Constable at Karori (he helps co-ordinate Karori's highly successful Civil Defence volunteers).

I will end with one piece of advice. Despite what the television advertisements tell you, you are not alone. You have neighbours and a big community all around you. Get in touch with them and discuss what you are going to do when the big one hits. Now's good.

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Jarrod Coburn is the Chief Executive of the New Zealand Resilience Trust - an organisation dedicated to improving community resilience and independence through research, education, and training. You can read more on their website: www.nzrt.org.nz.

ENDS

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