SHOULD DISASTER STRIKE, BE PREPARED -Contd: ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSE PLANNING

GUIDELINES ON
ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH RESPONSE PLANNING

In Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, emergency is defined as "an unforeseen combination of circumstances or the resulting state that calls for immediate action" or "an urgent need for assistance or relief".

Disaster Emergency management is not a duty for the federal government only but for states and LGAs also including the citizenry.
Emergencies can be categorized according to size, type, or cause. All require immediate, organized, effective response. Natural disasters are usually large in size and affect many people and large geographical areas. These include floods, forest fires, tornadoes, earthquakes, and now terrorism impacts etc.

Man-made disasters are usually localized in nature but can also affect large numbers of victims with resultant severe or fatal injuries. They include train wrecks, industrial fires; chemical spills; fires from accident of petrol loaded trucks/vessels; fires as a result of illegal oil bunkering and pipeline vandalism; airplane crashes and intentional disasters such as terrorist events, arson, mob violence, or acts of war.

The ability to effectively meet the needs of the people in the aftermath of a major disaster is dependent upon the quality of planning done prior to the event.
As a matter of fact, in order to successfully prepare and own a good Environmental Health Plan for Nigeria, the states or Local government areas, all Environmental Health professionals and staff, including their functions/activities, must be properly structured, unified and administered with a very clear line of control and communication/information flow from the LGA to State and up to federal levels of administration with requisite punishment against erring staff where needful. 
The Environmental Health Authority (govt.) in conjunction with EHOAN (Environmental Health Officers Association of Nigeria) must ensure the preparation of a functional Environmental Health Plan that will enable the Environmental Health Authority (and public health authority too) to function in a manner that fulfills its obligation to protect the health of the victims and the people that have come to assist in the recovery effort all, facets of public health must be considered.

All Environmental Health Emergency response plans to be crafted and adopted in the country must be made to function and cover the same process as possible and should be in line with other emergency programs in the country as put together by the public Health authority and National Emergency Management Agency, Red cross, security etc operating in the country since disaster response requires a team effort to be successful.

Immediately after a disaster, the focus of activities must shift from those activities that meet long term results such as chronic disease control and family planning, to those that meet an immediate need such as safe food and water, sanitary housing from the natural elements, prevention of epidemic types of communicable diseases, maintenance of ongoing medical treatment, insect and rodent control and solid waste management among others.

Also, Emergency Response Plan should anticipate the types of disasters that are most likely to occur in your country, state or local area, the types of damages that would be produced, the impact it would have upon the residents, as well as the resources required to meet the needs of impacted persons should be paramount in Emergency plan.

Also much of planning should be applicable to more than one type of event, just in case of eventualities. For example, in Nigeria, both flooding and terrorism impacts are known to produce power / communication outages, over large geographical areas and call for similar response activities.

Activities that we have become accustomed to and consider routine suddenly become a major challenge. Among these are maintaining safe food supplies and food service operations, water supplies, insect and vector control, sewage disposal, and disease prevention,  treatment, and control.

SOPs (Standard Operations Procedures) specifies that any world class EHERP (Environmental Health Emergency Response Plan) must determine which activities are most important, predict the constraints imposed by the disaster, determine the appropriate response, identify the resources needed, and locate a source that can supply these resources quickly or stockpile them before the disaster occurs.

Below you will find well researched suggestions, protocols, policies, and activities that can be used to record actions and manage world class EHR  that could provide you with a starting block upon which you can build an emergency response plan that is realistic and allow you (Environmental Health practitioner or agency) to respond to emergency in an efficient effective professional manner.

Every disaster and every county and LGAs are different so you probably will need to add information that is specific for your area.
Do not feel that you are gathering a large amount of information that may never be used. It will not only teach you a great deal about your state or area and establish communications with other agencies, it will also be invaluable in times of a disaster.

The truth remains that after a disaster occurs you may not have time to assemble the information needed to initiate a successful response.

This Environmental Health Disaster Response Plan is a prepared working document that should be ready and kept safe for use by the state and local environmental health departments and can easily be adapted to meet the needs that would arise due to any disaster.
It will assist you in identifying potential problems and available resources, and will facilitate an organized response and efficient use of resources.
DO NOT WAIT TILL DISASTER STRIKE BEFORE PUTTING IN PLACE SUCH A RESPONSE PLAN.

It is recognized that every emergency is different requiring employees to be flexible, open minded, and innovative.  Many of the activities contained here below are applicable regardless of the cause of the emergency and can be site adapted to meet the needs of the victims.

This plan will be implemented at the directive of the head of the Environmental Health Authority, Public health authority or their designee, or NEMA, based on an assumption of authority policy established at the time the plan is adopted..

If there is advanced warning of an impending catastrophe the staff should be notified immediately and every effort should be made to assist them in assuring the safety of their families and the protection of their property. They will, however, be expected to comply with the plan and report to their duty stations at the time scheduled.

The Environmental Health Department, in conjunction with the Public health dept is responsible for providing comprehensive public health services necessary to prevent or control diseases in the impacted community in relation to the emergency and also provide adequate security to secure available resources/properties, all aimed at ensuring the best quality of life possible until the emergency is over and normal conditions have returned.

These responsibilities include sanitation services such as food and water supply safety, insect and rodent control, and emergency medical services and even security services.
Nursing services include staffing emergency shelters, first aid, children's medical service, and AIDS clinics must be put in place.
Laboratory services include testing/analysis of water samples, diagnostic tests, and coordination with other labs for specialized testing.
Administrative activities would also support all functions and provide necessary supplies and equipment to meet the EHERP's responsibilities.
.......to be cont'd.

-EHSadvisor's blog