Filenews 19 June 2022
The Republic of Cyprus received the certification of the International Organization OCHA, for the confrontation of earthquakes, the spokeswoman of the Civil Defence Olympia Michaelidou told CNA today.
As stated, Olympia Michaelidou, spokeswoman of the Civil Defence "the Republic of Cyprus, through the Civil Defence Force of the Ministry of Interior, received today Sunday, June 19, certification from the Office of the United Nations, which is responsible for the coordination of humanitarian affairs (UN OCHA)".
The certification, he explained, "concerns the ability of the Republic of Cyprus to deal with a major catastrophic earthquake in Cyprus on the basis of international standards".
He added that since 14 June 2022 representatives of the International Organization UN OCHA have been in Cyprus for the purpose of assessing the national earthquake response system.
In this context, he said, "they visited services involved in earthquake issues and attended the exercise that took place during the entire day yesterday, of the search and rescue team in Larnaca to see if the UN OCHA 'Guidelines', known as INSARAG GUIDELINES, are being followed"."
As Mrs Michaelidou explained, the UN OCHA "Guidelines" on earthquake response are "the acceptable process of the European Union, which promotes their acceptance and implementation by its Member States". The satisfaction of the "Guidelines", he said, "is a very important event for the Republic of Cyprus, because it ranks it among the few countries around the world that have been examined and achieved the relevant certification".
In response to a question, Olympia Michaelidou said that "the acquisition of the certification was the result of painstaking and hard preparation".
According to her, the Civil Defence Force four years ago submitted a formal request to UN OCHA for the acquisition of the relevant certification. At that time, a formal cooperation procedure was established with the German Federal Disaster Response Agency (THW), which provides support to states wishing to join the UN OCHA family.
The process, he explained, "was very demanding, because it presupposed the adaptation of the entire system to international standards".
"It took the writing of a large manual of standard procedures, the purchase of specialized equipment, the training of our members in the new procedures and equipment and our participation in international exercises and trainings," he said and noted that "the conduct of yesterday's all-day exercise was the result of intensive preparation lasting six months"."
He also said that "THE REPRESENTATIVES of THW monitored every step of our preparations and guided us where they judged that changes were needed in order to keep up with INSARAG standards. During the four years they visited Cyprus several times, attended our exercises and offered us educational programs.
According to Mrs. Michaelidou "the relevant certification by UN OCHA and automatically by the European Union is a great proof of the capabilities of our state".
"We are very proud of this achievement and we will continue our efforts for even greater discrimination, always with a view to protecting the citizen, as is our mission," he concluded.
CNA
