Saarc nations undertake disaster combat exercise in NCR

NEW DELHI: The rescue and relief fighters from Saarc countries on Wednesday joined hands for the second time and undertook a massive field training exercise on combating a chemical emergency-like disaster with their specialized skills and equipment under a special cooperation drill in NCR.
The men and machine initiative is being hosted by India as part of the maiden four-day South Asian Annual Disaster Management Exercise (SAADMEx) which is being organized in the national capital region with the involvement of all Saarc (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and India.
The joint teams created a near-identical scenario of a chemical leakage due to earthquake at a facility here, under the supervision of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), and rescuers during the drill not only evacuated affected people but also analysed each others capabilities in this domain.
They also tried to create a synergy amongst themselves so that these techniques can be used when it comes to dealing with a real-life scenario.
“Today’s exercise positively met its objectives. It is expected that the exercise will be quite fruitful to rescue teams of each Saarc nation and to understand each other’s chemical energy capabilities and skills on a common platform and under global protocols as envisaged by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA),” NDRF director general OP Singh said.
The NDRF chief said an exclusive session will be held on the closing day of SAADMEx on Thursday so that notes are shared by each country based on the field exercises they have held in the last two days.
The joint teams had conducted a similar exercise in the context of an earthquake-like disaster at a location in Ghaziabad on Tuesday.