Environmental Emergencies Trainings: Environmental Emergency Training 4 in Spiez, Switzerland, April 2012

 

Environmental Emergency Training exercises aim to strengthen the knowledge, skills and understanding of environmental experts and enable them to respond more effectively in difficult environments throughout the entirety of the emergency mission cycles of preparedness, mobilization, operations, demobilization and post-mission.  The most recent example of where this knowledge was being utilized was in the recent series of explosions that occurred on 4 March at an ammunitions depot near Brazzaville, leaving at least 200 dead and an estimated 1,500 seriously injured. A four-member UNDAC team was deployed by OCHA to the Republic of Congo to undertake a comprehensive site assessment, which included sampling and analysis to determine possible exposure. The blast destroyed houses, buildings and transportation infrastructure and had scattered unexploded ordnances and possible contaminants into the surrounding area. 

The trainings comprised a series of classroom sessions taught by experts, as well as an all-day field simulation exercise, which provided a demonstrative environment to what is faced by environmental emergency responders before, during and after their deployment. These trainings familiarize environmental responders with key international environmental response tools and resources such as: