Description
Description (EN): The common territorial challenges we are jointly tackling in our project are represented by the overall low mitigation capacity of the specialized Romanian & Bulgarian emergency situations actors regarding forest fire interventions in the cross border area mainly due to the lack of the specific endowment investments and intervention means regarding the risks generated by the natural disasters.
Dolj County – Lom, Montana area is highly susceptible to climate change and natural disasters such as droughts, flooding, landslides, fires, etc. Considering that, the necessity of a better joint risk management achieved in the Dolj County and Lom, Montana cross border area in order to increase the emergency situations capacity to manage both the risks and the event occurrences becomes one of the main priorities of the two cross border communities. The project also addresses the challenge of bringing people and public stakeholders closer in risk mitigation and response. Trained and specialized human resources are other mandatory requirement for a better quality risk management in cross-border area.
The overall objective of the project is to improve joint risk management in the cross-border area by increasing the reaction capacity of the specific actors with attributions in fighting forest fires in Dolj-Lom, Montana cross-border area, thus, strengthening the institutional and technical management capacity in case of disaster & response in emergency situations.
The expected change the project will make to the current situation is represented by improved cooperation at the operational level and enhancing the response capacity by extending the existing logistics with new dedicated equipment.
Our project will contribute to 2 (two) Programme outputs targeted by this call, namely:
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1. Population benefiting from forest fire protection measures
Some of the Dolj County and Lom, Montana territories are covered with forest surfaces, generating forest fire risks which could affect the population living in those areas, on both sides of the Danube. Thus, the population of the two communities is undertaking the consequences of the risks occurred throughout the territory, which is more and more relevant once the communities are getting closer and the barriers are fading. The emergency situations are endangering the people’s lives & goods and are spoiling the environment. The sustainable development of the communities is slowed down, with impact upon the quality of life. By increasing the emergency situations capacity to mitigate the risks, the project is contributing to preparedness and limitation of the effects. Nevertheless, the awareness-raising campaign is meeting the population need to be prepared on how to prevent, mobilize and adjust to emergency situations. At the same time, the equipment acquired through the project is addressing this specific risk, while the joint applications in Dolj and Lom consist in “Forest Fire” simulations.
The population benefiting from forest fire protection measures amounts 46,700 inhabitants: 22,916 inhabitants in Lom and 23,784 inhabitants in the 6 localities from Dolj in which the early warning system will be extended by adding other 6 alarming electronic sirens (Plenita – 4,156 inhabitants, Farcas – 2,047 inhabitants, Bratovoiesti – 3,230 inhabitants, Sadova – 8,361 inhabitants, Cetate – 4,572 inhabitants and Brabova – 1,418 inhabitants).
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2. Number of joint partnerships in the field of joint early warning and emergency response
Four partnerships between RO&BG actors will be concluded, respectively: one partnership between Inspectorate for Emergency Situations Oltenia, Dolj&Lom Fire Brigade Volunteers Unit; one partnership between Mihai Bravul Dolj County Inspectorate of Gendarmerie&Lom Fire Brigade Volunteers Unit; one partnership between Dolj County&Lom Municipality and one partnership between the two School Inspectorates from Dolj&Montana, representing a percentage of 9.76% from the target indicator to be achieved at the program level (41).
The project approaches the identified common challenges and/or opportunities by increasing the quality of the common risk management in the two Romanian and Bulgarian communities, strengthening and improving the intervention capacity by providing performant intervention equipment able to fight fire disasters and providing well trained human resources within its joint applications, all the above realized through the endowment with emergency intervention equipment in Dolj County and Lom, establishing and improving of a Fire Brigade Volunteers Unit, establishing joint partnerships in the field of risk management situations generated by fire; Joint applications for simulating cross border fire disasters in Dolj and Lom, Montana cross border area; Raising awareness of children, general public and media on prevention and fighting forest fires; organizing press-conference in Craiova and one seminar in Lom having as a main topic the prevention and fighting forest fires in the cross border region.
The joint cross border character of the project, besides the neighboring aspect of the two communities, is strengthen by the collaboration between specialized actors in the field of emergency situation management, which will lead to a better approach in case of forest fire disasters occurrence, both in planning and allocation of the available resources but also in firefighting interventions, than if a singular approach was applied. Moreover, each partner of the project will benefit from the other’s partner relevant knowledge and experience. Thus, it is highly important that the two neighboring countries act together and be supporting to one another in case of disaster incidents, their mutual support being extremely important in critical emergency situations.
The cooperation in this field is essential as the geography of the border area and the associated disaster risks indicates a clear added-value in tackling together both the planning and the implementation of mitigation and disaster resilience measures. A higher level of disaster risk prevention can come from cross border cooperation and common coordination. The novelty of the project consists in two aspects:
- for the first time an emergency intervention unit, namely Lom Fire Brigade Volunteers Unit will be set up in the city of LOM, for the prevention and overcoming of fires, disasters
- for the first time a Gendarmerie unit, namely Mihai Bravul Dolj County Inspectorate of Gendarmerie, will be involved in a Romania-Bulgaria cross border project, also bringing a new approach of the partnership involved in forest fire fighting
The project indicative budget is 1,000,000.00 Euro, out of which 250,000.00 Euro LP, 500,000.00 Euro PP and 250,000.00 Euro B
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Read more Achievements (EN): The implementation period of the project ends in 29.12.2023, but because of delays in the implementation of activities by LB, the project was included on the list of un-finalized projects, according to the provisions of the Romanian Government Decision no. 36/2023, following the decision of the Monitoring Committee of the Interreg V-A Ro-Bg Programme, no. 313/14.11.2023. The new completion date of the project is 30.04.2024.
Within the activity T1 – “Increasing intervention capacity in fighting forest fire in the cross border area”, the following equipment were purchased:
1. 3 SUVs with pick-up, by B4 - "Mihai Bravul" Dolj County Inspectorate of Gendarmerie;
2. Special firefighting protection equipment, by B3 - Inspectorate for Emergency Situations OLTENIA, DOLJ COUNTY;
3. 4 Quadricycles with firefighting system and 4 trailers for their transportation by Beneficiary 3 - Inspectorate for Emergency Situations OLTENIA, DOLJ COUNTY.
LB remade the audibility studies for the warning system and of the electronic alarming sirens. The tender book was revised according to the new studies and the procurement for the alarming system and sirens was re-launched. Still, the procedure was cancelled given that some inconsistencies were found and was re-launched on 04.10.2023 SCN1132302/04.10.2023).
B2 –Lom Municipality signed a works contract and finalized the works on the building that will serve as the headquarters of the volunteers fire brigade. Also, B2 has conducted a campaign for selecting volunteers for the fire brigade and all the volunteers have been recruited.
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Website: https://interregrobg.eu
Expected Results (EN): R3.1 - The quality of the joint risk management in the CBC area
Expected Outputs (EN): The quality of the joint risk management in the cross border area will be improved as the project will enhance the quality of the existing emergency situations management systems, following the implementation of tools, methods and techniques for the better management of specific environmental risks existing on both sides of the border (workshop’s, practical guide, joint exercise in case of emergency situations).
The joint risk management will also be improved as cross-border cooperation will increase the emergency intervention ability, and create the opportunity to early notify all partners of the imminence of a disaster or the inception of the disaster in case of forest fires. Thus the number of affected people will be minimized and the saved assets will be maximized due to the increased intervention capabilities, the joint communication and the skills of working together due to the joint simulations.
Creating an integrated system for environmental monitoring, early detection and prevention of natural disasters and management of crisis situations and investment in special vehicles for professional interventions will increase the degree of safety/security of the population, regardless of location human establishments. All initiatives are directly subordinated to the requirement for convergence of cross-border communities as a continuous step towards the sustainable cooperation.
Also, due to this project a software solution will be able to send warning messages through various communication channels to all parties involved in the project to minimize the intervention time, to minimize the impact in people lives due to increased intervention capabilities.
The project aims to improve the reaction capacity of the specific actors with attributions in fighting forest fires in Dolj-Lom, Montana cross-border area, by strengthening the institutional and technical degree of specific equipment in order to finally contribute to a higher quality of the joint risk management in the CBC area.
A better quality of the joint risk management will be achieved via: Setting up a Fire Brigade Volunteers Unit in Lom, Montana, Acquisition of the emergency equipment, harmonizing joint emergency intervention operations by exchanging experience and knowledge, Raising awareness of children, general public and media, Establishing joint partnerships in the field of risk management situations generated by fire.
The project provides the means to create an additional emergency intervention unit in Lom city of Bulgaria and to provide intervention equipment for all the parties involved in emergency reaction task force composed of: Inspectorate of Emergency Situations Oltenia, Mihai Bravul Dolj County Inspectorate of Gendarmerie, Lom Fire Brigade Volunteers Unit.
The project aims to develop common methods of training for a better cross-border cooperation, procedures and harmonizing the communication of the authorities in order to improve the reaction time in case of disaster. This will be achieved by joint simulations of forest fires in the Dolj, Lom/Montana cross border area and by establishing partnerships in the field of risk management situations and know-how exchange.
The joint approach is relevant to the role appointed in the activities of this project:
- Execution, with its own strengths or in cooperation, of the operations and activities of notification, warning, alerting, reconnaissance, research, evacuation, shelter, search, rescue, support for the survival of affected population and other measures to protect citizens in case of disasters;
- Participation in identifying resources available for response in emergency situations and keep track of forces and means;
- Insurance of a good functioning of the Technical Secretariat of the County Committee for Emergencies in case of situations of risk.
Certain specific measures to be implemented within the project will be a matter of further discussions among all interested stakeholders, namely: Inspectorate of Emergency Situations Oltenia, Mihai Bravul Dolj County Inspectorate of Gendarmerie, Lom Fire Brigade Volunteers Unit, local Romanian and Bulgarian authorities, Local Population, Educational institutes (incl. primary and secondary schools, universities and vocational schools), NGOs: non-governmental organizations, Mass Media, Health care institutions, etc.
For an efficient management of the emergency situations, the authorities need a participatory attitude from the population from the affected areas before, during and after the emergency situations occurrence, hence the necessity to permanently undertake the information actions, education and population preparing.
The proposed project will improve the trans-border cooperation between institutions on both sides of the border with management roles and taking part in emergency situations, by implementing the project in partnership and addressing the needs of both parties.
The existing level of awareness and preparedness of local people to deal with natural hazards does not guarantee a response that would be efficient enough, regardless of age groups. People may have some general knowledge about hazards but still they are prone to behaving inconsistently in unusual situations, due to lack of preparedness. Thus, increasing the level of preparedness of people in general and raising their awareness about natural hazards is necessary.
Enhancing the coordinated mitigation capacity on fire natural hazards of the local specialized units, in the framework of the coordinated risk management at county/municipality level, approached in a cumulative manner lead to the increasing of population safety degree which reflects in the quality of the joint risk management in the CBC area, generating a proper satisfaction degree of the stakeholders in the area.
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