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ENVIRONMENT – CIVIL PROTECTION > UKRAINE

With high water comes high responsibility When disaster strikes, it is usually too late to prepare for www.enpi-info.eu it and the only thing left to do is deal with the consequences. Disasters are best dealt with when citizens, rescue services and volunteers can cooperate with each other, because the behaviour and participation of individuals are key to emergency management. In Ukraine, the EU-funded regional programme for the Prevention, Preparedness and Response to natural and manmade disasters in the ENPI East Region (PPRD East) working in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine, has started its awareness campaign in an area that frequently suffers from floods and high water levels. An EU Neighbourhood Info Centre journalist joined the campaign’s launch event in the Novoselitskiy district and has this report. Text by Zhanna Bezpiatchuk Pictures by AFP © EU Neighbourhood INFO CENTRE

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NOVOSELYTSIA – Outside the Ukrainian town of Novoselytsia just a few kilometers from N The river Prut, in Novoselitsiya. the Ukrainian-Romanian border, towards the Prut river, EU expert Svitlana Skrykuliak points and says in a rather matter of fact way: “Here, in 2008, I was forcing my way through on an army tank.” What makes people drive tanks in peacetime? The answer is floods that sweep everything in their way. In the small region of Chernivtsi there are over 4,000 rivers. When heavy rain adds to the high water levels in the rivers, the locals know that a disaster is looming. The latest floods occurred here in 2008 and 2010. In the wake of those experiences, the Ukrainian town is still learning how to face EU Neighbourhood Info Centre a disaster. A lot depends on the willingness of its residents to better Feature no. 113 This is a series of features on prepare for a future emergency.

Preparing before it’s too late Passing through the town, the scale of the threat faced by Novoselytsia is still there for all to see. The meter-high lines etched onto the walls offer a stark reminder of the 2010 flood, as locals have been unable to

EU Neighbourhood Info Centre – Feature no. 113

N A car stuck in the mud near the river Prut.

“Many people arrive when a disaster strikes, but actually a lot of work has to be done before, when nothing indicates a disaster”

N Resident of village Marshyntsi walks on temporary bridge on the river Prut.

With high water comes high responsibility

wash the mud off the floors and the walls. Some houses have become uninhabitable. In 2010, the floods claimed the lives of three people, and one boy was never found. “We fled at midnight, when the flood broke out. We were scared. People wept. Afterwards we were living in tents in the yard of our destroyed house until the new one was built, thanks to help from the state,” says Larysa Ivanivna, whose old house was built without any foundations. At the time, nobody had explained that it was necessary. Now the door of her new house is one meter above the earth to deal with any flood. Vitaliy Kyryl, mayor of the nearby village of Marșînți, said that when the waters broke loose, it felt as if his house was on an island. According to Kyryl, it usually takes at least two months for the land to recover after a flood. It is not by chance that the EU-funded programme for the Prevention, Preparedness and Response to natural and man-made disasters in the ENPI East Region (PPRD) started a public awareness campaign about flooding and its dangers in this region. Thanks to the campaign, people are beginning to realise how crucial their participation is in disaster prevention and how vital their own behaviour can be during extreme situations. As became tragically clear to them three years ago, it could be a matter of life and death. “I think it is very important that we are here at a time when there is no flooding,” says Vladimir Kuznetsov, the communication expert of the PPRD East project. “Many people arrive when a disaster strikes, but actually a lot of work has to be done before, when nothing indicates a disaster. Our programme wants to help citizens learn how to assist each other, how to properly use aid and how to behave correctly in case of emergency.”

A call from the mayor and the response system is triggered “There should be no improvisation. There are detailed instructions for each occasion,” says Alberto Ferrando, mayor of Quiliano, an Italian town the same size as Novoselytsia that also suffers from flooding. Quiliano has managed to develop an efficient alert system to carry out the evacuation of its population long before the floodwater reaches the town. Mayor Ferrando has come to share his experience with his Ukrainian colleagues. He tells them that his city’s system of civil protection is unique even on the Italian national scale. Once the mayor gets an alarm from the ombrometers, the devices that measure rainfall, he only has to make one phone call and the entire response system is triggered automatically. When this happens, everybody in charge of preparation and disaster management knows exactly what to do. “When we get alerts, we know that we have three to four hours to prepare. Normally, it takes around one hour to warn the population about the danger. First, we send a warning SMS through our mobile phone database, then our police and well-trained volunteers go door-to-door notifying people and help to evacuate them,” he says.

New legislation to encourage volunteers? The Italian mayor said the volunteer movement had been evolving for ages, while for Ukraine it is something new and its development slightly hampered by existing laws. “The risk of floods in the Chernivtsi region is very high compared to the other Ukrainian regions.,” says Oleksandr Tomko, the deputy head of the Chernivtsi regional department of the State Service for Emergencies.

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N Larisa Yankova shows the water level during the last flood disaster.

“Our programme wants to help citizens learn how to assist each other, how to properly use aid and how to behave correctly in case of emergency”

EU Neighbourhood Info Centre – Feature no. 113

N New houses built to replace the ones destroyed by flooding.

With high water comes high responsibility

“When a disaster strikes, our people ask the state rescue services for help. Ukrainian legislation does not fully permit volunteers’ involvement: if something happens to a volunteer, a question of responsibility is inescapably raised.” So, Ukraine should pass a legislation to pave a way for Ukrainian “angels of mud”, like the Italian volunteers who rushed in 1966 to Florence to save its precious book heritage from a devastating flood. Today in Italy the civil protection movement embraces around 1.2 million people, while volunteers are covered with state insurance and provided special training. The floods provided Ukrainians with their experience of volunteering during disasters. In 2008 and 2010 Ukrainian fishermen with their own boats, young canoe oarsmen and other helpers worked together with the professional rescue services. In 2008 the disaster came as a surprise because the previous one of a similar scale took place more than 35 years earlier in 1972. At that time, some people refused to abandon their houses because they said that without a home their life makes no sense. The public awareness campaign launched in Novoselytsia is making them recognise that yes, life after a disaster still does make sense.

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“When we get alerts, we know that we have three to four hours to prepare. Normally, it takes around one hour to warn the population about the danger”

PPRD East Prevention, Preparedness and Response to man-made and natural disaster in the ENPI East Region http://euroeastcp.eu/en/ Participating countries Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine

Reinforces the capacity of participating countries for disaster prevention, preparedness and response, and facilitates cooperation with the EU and the countries themselves – one of the Flagship Initiatives under the Eastern Partnership.

Timeframe 2010-2014

Objective PPRD East aims at contributing towards peace, stability, security and prosperity in the Eastern ENPI region and at protecting the environment, the population, cultural heritage, resources and infrastructures by strengthening the countries’ resilience, preparedness and response to man-made and natural disasters. It will also bring the partner countries closer to the EU’s Civil Protection Mechanism.

Budget €6 million

To find out more ENPI Fiche and news about the programme: www.enpi-info.eu/maineast.php?id=211&id_type=10 EU Neighbourhood Info Centre Thematic portal: Environment www.enpi-info.eu/themeeast.php?subject=6

EU Neighbourhood Info Centre An ENPI project The EU Neighbourhood Info Centre is an EU-funded Regional Communication project highlighting the partnership between the EU and Neighbouring countries. The project is managed by Action Global Communications.