Message from Secretary General of the ICDO
Preventive information is the first link in the population protection chain.
Informing the public of the major risks that are likely to develop where they live, work and play and explaining to them how they should react to these risks is indispensable if we want to improve warning efficiency and helps to significantly reduce the number of victims and the extent of the damage when these dreaded events occur.
Yet this is an area in which the implementation of a proactive coherent policy has been particularly difficult. The development of active measures has come up against a great deal of resistance mainly due to the fear that this type of information will cause anxiety or even panic amongst the population.
However, various experiences in several countries have shown that these fears are unfounded. On the one hand because the population, which is more and more demanding when it comes to safety, has expressed its desire to be informed on how to react when faced with major hazards. On the other hand because the main problem when disseminating information on disasters is not anxiety or panic but quite the opposite: passivity and difficulties assimilating the information.
This is why every time sirens start sounding unexpectedly in any city around the world the same thing occurs: the majority of the population feels poorly informed of the alert procedure and thinks that it would be important to organise an information campaign on the subject.
Therefore, informing the population must be considered the State's duty; every citizen has the right to be informed of the major hazards that he or she may have to face.
Amongst the various players involved in preventive information, the State must be the initiator and must guarantee the implementation of policies and dissemination of information and alert documents to the population, in particular by defining the role and duties of all stakeholders, public and private.
The process of informing citizens should first and foremost be based on preventive information programmes in high-risk zones. In this case it is up to the local authorities (municipalities, districts...) with the help of the State departments (particularly civil defence services) to produce information documents on the hazards and the procedures to follow in the event of a disaster.
These documents must be made readily available to the population (distribution, poster campaigns on safety instructions, etc.). Moreover, around hazardous industrial sites more specific complementary information campaigns must be carried out by the companies involved.
In addition to these measures taken for the population directly affected by risks, it is important to raise awareness and inform as many people as possible of the procedure to follow in the event of a crisis. This is why many countries have already integrated risk prevention awareness classes into mandatory schooling or initial military service training. The wide range of leaflets, posters, DVDs and video games also make it easier to disseminate the instructions to follow in hazardous situations to a much broader population.
As they are better informed, citizens will be better prepared for ensuring their own safety in the event of major hazards.
This is why, on the occasion of the World Civil Defence Day, on 1st March 2009, ICDO would like to invite all States to consider working with their civil defence services to create and implement preventive information programmes for their populations.
