Brussels, 09/03/2010 (Agence Europe) - Twenty-six experts from 14 countries from the Mediterranean and the Balkans are meeting on 9-12 March in Rome, to attempt to complete the plan for preventing natural and man-made disasters. The plan was devised in 1998. Their meeting took place as part of the “PPRD South” programme and is funded by the European Commission to the tune of €5 million. Over a period of four days, they will exchange views and share their experiences with regard to the civil protection system, “Geographic Information Systems” (GIS) set up to this end.
PPRD is the third phase of a European civil protection programme set up in 1998 and which began with a five-year pilot programme, followed by other projects each of them lasting three years and carried out by a consortium coordinated by the Italian civil protection services. The consortium also includes French, Algerian and Egyptian services and those provided by the specialist United Nations (UNISDR). Participant countries have developed an information and exchange plan, in addition to a series of specialist seminars aimed at coordinating their knowledge and means of intervention.
Despite its geographic, climate, biological and cultural differences, the Mediterranean, including the Balkans, presents, according to these experts, common characteristics and greater risks created by the increased mobility of the population in these areas. According to the database listing events over the last 28 years (EM-DAT), almost 31,000,000 people in the Mediterranean region have suffered from natural or man-made disasters, with damages being estimated to having reached a figure of €125 billion. These disasters include the 14 million people affected by drought, 8 million by earthquakes and 8 million by floods. The most frequent kind of disasters and the most destructive are earthquakes, floods, droughts, tsunamis, forest fires, pollution at sea and industrial accidents. Additionally there is the problem of climate change, as testified to by these experts, who pointed out that heavy rainfall and torrential floods simultaneously hit Israel, Jordan, Palestine and Egypt during January 2010. (F.B./transl.fl)