Meeting Report: Protecion Civil
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Meeting Report: Protecion Civil
Location: Alcaldia Mejicanos
Date: 16/04/09
Time: 09:00-10:30
Main topic: Working methods of Protecion Civil (in Mejicanos)
Participants:[??], Victor Perez, Wouter & Sofia (UCA)
Introduction
This Protecion Civil (Civil Protection) is a department of the Alcaldia (City Hall) of Mejicanos dedicated to social development. We asked to meet with them in order to get an understanding about the involvement of the local/central government in social development and other support in Mejicanos. Accompanied by Victor Perez, we could inform about the most vulnerable zones in Mejicanos and the accessibility and possibilities to investigate these areas. They promised to share an investigation which could provide us with (general) facts and figures about […] Mejicanos. We can expect this on a digital CD, which Victor will bring with him next community meeting (Friday).
Most vulnerable zones
To choose our area of focus within Mejicanos we also informed to the most vulnerable zones concerning natural disasters. They responded with:
- Montreal
- San Ramon
- San Roque
- Chancana
About Protecion Civil
The inefficiency between the local and central government was immediately addressed; “the central government doesn’t help”. With the capacity that they have, they focus mostly on critical poverty. In order to increase their capacity (and that of the community) they are building capacity, to organize people. These projects are implemented on a national, Municipality and community scale.
In Montreal for example, after an emergency, they organized the people and distributed plastic materials (budget). They collaborated with Procomes, who shared tools with the Alcaldia while Protecion Civil was focussing on raising more awareness in developing an early alarm system [called “alarma temporal”].
They work before, during and after the emergency. During the emergency phase the have more community meetings instead of the weekly normative. They make inventory on necessities etc. and they receive help from national police, Red Cross and the army. NGO mostly helped by distributing clothes and food. Victor gave an example of ‘small’ disaster to illustrate the relation between citizens and the Alcaldia. There’s a lot of wind during summertime, trees can fall down. (He explained that he was contacted in the middle of the night by a family whose house was destroyed by a tree at 2 am and the problem was solved at 7 am.)
Before and after is more in the sense of prevention; building capacity and raising awareness. The educate how to use the community house during an emergency and about the infrastructure leading to it. Then they evaluate the system [after scenario training?] and educate the people how to use the measurement tools for quicker evacuation and prevention [help from Municipality]. The route of evacuation is identified with risk routes and they don’t have the financial capacity to improve the roads. In order to map the behaviour of people as a result of these projects (incentives) we asked about the experiences with this prevention trainings. It seems that in the summer, when the risk is lower than during winter, only a few people participate in the projects. While during the winter people experience the risk (all over again) and the participation is very high. We were told that this could be generalised as cultural perception; that people are very reactionary. [He illustrated this with the example of a volcano eruption that happened 15 years ago, killing 300 people and after that the settlement was exactly rebuild in the same way. The same could be set about the area Las Collinas, where they first earthquake of 2001 destroyed the settlement and now there is another settlement built on the other side of the hills/mountain.]
Future development
When we asked about the plans for future development, regarding for example job oppurtunities and accessibility to schools, they explained that there is no plan. There are different plans regarding subjects like security, healthcare and environmental issues but these are never integrated. To improve the liveability they explained that the (financial) capacity obstructs them to reach and improve this for more people. They focus on improving the pavements and put up protection walls on the scale of urban conditions. They look, put the responsibility, to the national government to develop an integrated plan and adjust the laws (rules & regulations). They indicated the flaws in the current political system with the example/scenario where (big) construction companies build a settlement in an identified high risk zone, volcano zone. Regardless of the problems and risk they intend to capitalize quickly and (unconsciously) add to the risks in those areas, with deforestation etc.
In the end we made to appointments with Victor Perez. One is to start attending the community meetings in Mejicanos and the other to meet with Procomes.
Meeting Report: Protecion Civil
Location: Alcaldia Mejicanos
Date: 16/04/09
Time: 09:00-10:30
Main topic: Working methods of Protecion Civil (in Mejicanos)
Participants:[??], Victor Perez, Wouter & Sofia (UCA)
Introduction
This Protecion Civil (Civil Protection) is a department of the Alcaldia (City Hall) of Mejicanos dedicated to social development. We asked to meet with them in order to get an understanding about the involvement of the local/central government in social development and other support in Mejicanos. Accompanied by Victor Perez, we could inform about the most vulnerable zones in Mejicanos and the accessibility and possibilities to investigate these areas. They promised to share an investigation which could provide us with (general) facts and figures about […] Mejicanos. We can expect this on a digital CD, which Victor will bring with him next community meeting (Friday).
Most vulnerable zones
To choose our area of focus within Mejicanos we also informed to the most vulnerable zones concerning natural disasters. They responded with:
- Montreal
- San Ramon
- San Roque
- Chancana
About Protecion Civil
The inefficiency between the local and central government was immediately addressed; “the central government doesn’t help”. With the capacity that they have, they focus mostly on critical poverty. In order to increase their capacity (and that of the community) they are building capacity, to organize people. These projects are implemented on a national, Municipality and community scale.
In Montreal for example, after an emergency, they organized the people and distributed plastic materials (budget). They collaborated with Procomes, who shared tools with the Alcaldia while Protecion Civil was focussing on raising more awareness in developing an early alarm system [called “alarma temporal”].
They work before, during and after the emergency. During the emergency phase the have more community meetings instead of the weekly normative. They make inventory on necessities etc. and they receive help from national police, Red Cross and the army. NGO mostly helped by distributing clothes and food. Victor gave an example of ‘small’ disaster to illustrate the relation between citizens and the Alcaldia. There’s a lot of wind during summertime, trees can fall down. (He explained that he was contacted in the middle of the night by a family whose house was destroyed by a tree at 2 am and the problem was solved at 7 am.)
Before and after is more in the sense of prevention; building capacity and raising awareness. The educate how to use the community house during an emergency and about the infrastructure leading to it. Then they evaluate the system [after scenario training?] and educate the people how to use the measurement tools for quicker evacuation and prevention [help from Municipality]. The route of evacuation is identified with risk routes and they don’t have the financial capacity to improve the roads. In order to map the behaviour of people as a result of these projects (incentives) we asked about the experiences with this prevention trainings. It seems that in the summer, when the risk is lower than during winter, only a few people participate in the projects. While during the winter people experience the risk (all over again) and the participation is very high. We were told that this could be generalised as cultural perception; that people are very reactionary. [He illustrated this with the example of a volcano eruption that happened 15 years ago, killing 300 people and after that the settlement was exactly rebuild in the same way. The same could be set about the area Las Collinas, where they first earthquake of 2001 destroyed the settlement and now there is another settlement built on the other side of the hills/mountain.]
Future development
When we asked about the plans for future development, regarding for example job oppurtunities and accessibility to schools, they explained that there is no plan. There are different plans regarding subjects like security, healthcare and environmental issues but these are never integrated. To improve the liveability they explained that the (financial) capacity obstructs them to reach and improve this for more people. They focus on improving the pavements and put up protection walls on the scale of urban conditions. They look, put the responsibility, to the national government to develop an integrated plan and adjust the laws (rules & regulations). They indicated the flaws in the current political system with the example/scenario where (big) construction companies build a settlement in an identified high risk zone, volcano zone. Regardless of the problems and risk they intend to capitalize quickly and (unconsciously) add to the risks in those areas, with deforestation etc.
In the end we made to appointments with Victor Perez. One is to start attending the community meetings in Mejicanos and the other to meet with Procomes.
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