Training and Safety Drills: An important pillar
Training and safety drills are an important pillar within the DCC-VenW. Unfortunately today, crises are a subject that needs to be addressed within the policies of the Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management. The Ministry must therefore be thoroughly prepared for disasters and crises.
An important part of these preparations is the training/practicing of all the concerned employees and management teams internally and externally within the VenW organisation. There is a legal requirement to have and keep an adequate and competent crisis organisation. To realise this, regular training sessions and safety drills are organised.
There are between 60 and 70 training and safety drills organised every year to keep the crisis organisation on its toes and to review the singular and group competence of the employees. Safety drills are carried out on every policy area of the Ministry.
The DCC-VenW core staff also has regular drills, between 6 to 7 per year. Central to all the drills is anticipating the development of an incident or crisis. What will the situation look like in a couple of hours and which immediate decisions need to be made to keep up with the situation? The transfer of information within the operation between the involved parties is also of great importance. This is because good decision making relies upon the quality of the information and how it is shared.
The DCC-VenW possesses a powerful information system when it comes to the sharing of information called Infra-web. Infra-web will continue to be developed and introduced slowly into the entire VenW organisation and should become a strategic player in the supply of information regarding security and crisis management.
