MALAYA: Asean holds annual disaster drill in Singapore

By ANTHONY IAN CRUZ
Malaya
Oct. 23, 2007

THE Association of Southeast Asian Nations will hold the third in a series of annual disaster simulation exercises tomorrow at the Mandai Training Village in Singapore.

The Asean Regional Disaster Emergency Response Simulation Exercise 2007 (ARDEX-07) seeks to enhance the capacities and capabilities of member-countries in joint disaster management operations.

Search and rescue teams from Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines will join the drill.

Also participating are representatives from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

The Asean Committee on Disaster Management said the drill will test regional emergency response and humanitarian assistance capacities in a simulated state of civil emergency caused by the collapse of several multi-storey apartment buildings inhabited by hundreds of residents.

The simulation also includes continuous rains that put the supposed victims at risk of drowning.

The regional drills were launched after the signing of the 2005 Asean Agreement on Disaster Management and Emergency Response in Vientiane, Laos.

The first two drills were held in Malaysia in 2005 and in Cambodia in 2006. Scenarios used in each exercise attempted to replicate the scale and nature of destruction brought about by disasters such as earthquakes, landslides and typhoons which usually occur in the region.

Singapore is also hosting the 13th Asean Summit on Nov. 18-22.