Dixie Toilets and Places Where you can go to Charge your Phone or Get Drinking Water: These Kinds of Measures Are Necessary In The Event of Emergencies. Not Every Municipality is Well prepared for this.
Last year, All Residents of the Netherlands Were Advised to Put Together An Emergency Kit to Be Prepared for Disasters or Calamities. Municipalities must also work on this. They are legal response for the care of their residents.
The Association of Municipalities (VNG) has inventory how the Dutch Municipalities Should Prepare Themselves Exactly. The Document Contains 41 Measures That Municipalities Can Take If A Serious Crisis Occurs In The Netherlands. These include Mintining Sufficient Drinking Water and Food, or what to do if the power goes out for a long time.
Municipalities must also Ensure That Democracy Remains in Place Duration A Crisis. For example, elections, demonstrations, and decision-making must always Remain Possible. The handbook also contains measures that muticipalities can take to prepare for a crisis.
“Several Municipalities, Together with the Safety Regions, Have Already Started Preparations to Help Citizens in Crisis Situations,” Says a VNG Spokesperson. “But there are also muticipalities that are not yet sufficiently prepared, for example for a long-term crisis.”
More Urgency Around Safety
“It is not that there is Suddenly a Major Disaster or Calamity at the Door,” Emphasizes Researcher Kees Boersma of the VU University Amsterdam in Conversation with Nu.nl. “But there is now a Greater Sense of Urgency.”
Shortly After the Second World War and Duration the Cold War, Dutch People Were Aware That a Disaster or Crisis was Always Lurking, Accordance to Boersma. That awareness has faded since the end of the cold war in the late 1980s. “But the Corona Crisis, The War in Ukraine, And, For Example, The NoticaX CONSQUESCES of Climate Change Ensure That We Are More Aware of the Risks of Crisis Situations Again.”
In Addition to Preparation, also Practicing
In Addition to Preparing for Crisis Sitations, IT is important Accordance to the VNG that the scenarios that have leg prepared are also practiced. “Otherwise you don’t know if your preparation works and is sufficient.”
“What should not be undererexposed in Municipalities is the Continuity of their Own Organization in Crisis Situations,” Continues The VNG Spokesperson. “If the Organization No Longer Works, You Cannot Offer Help As A Municipality.”
Help From Companies also Needed
In Such A Crisis Situation, Municipalities Will also Be Dependent on the Business Community, Social Organizations and Citizens. For Example, for Locations and the Design of Emergency Support Points. “Municipalities should know better than anyone Else who lives in Their City or Village and What they need,” Says Researcher Boersma.
“In the event of a disaster or calamity, the needs of people in one district can be different from those in another district.