|
|
Civil Protection
 
What is it?
The Department of Civil Protection, established by the then Deputy Minister Giuseppe Zamberletti, is a body entrusted with the Presidency of the Council of Ministers for extraordinary situations of need.
The "Civil Defense"term means the set of all structures and activities put in place by the state to protect the integrity of life, property, settlements and the environment from harm or risk of damage from natural disasters and other catastrophic events.
The law governing the "National System of Civil Protection" is law n ° 225 of.02.24.92.
The service takes care of issues related to prediction and prevention of risks that persist on the territory and copes with possible emergencies in order to limit the adverse consequences of any disaster, natural or manmade,on the community.
Tasks
We often think that civil protection is limited to the interventions that bring relief in case of disasters. It is not so; in fact,most of the activity is aimed to forecast and prevent. The Law 225/92 expressly provides that the duties of Civil Defense articulate in complex ways not only to the simple management of post-emergency, but in an integrated set of activities covering all stages of the "before and after", according to the four sides of:
- Forecast
- Prevention
- Rescue
- Restoration
The studies,the research,the training for persons engaged in the system (professionals and volunteers), the activity of information given to the public,the emergency response planning and the activities undertaken-that is much of the Civil Defense work.
However, the core of Civil Protection traditionally remains the "emergency management"hence the so-called duties of care and rescue of people affected by disaster, although these "egregious" and highly visibile activities are only the tip of the iceberg of the Civil Defense work.
In Italy the Civil Defense structure is a task that involves the entire organization of the state, central and peripheral,as well as the entire system of local authorities and civil societies fully participate to the National Service of Civil Protection through volunteering oragnizations. This ensures a level of central coordination combined with strong flexibility on the territory as well as allowing an explicit involvement of local authorities, which already run the territory also"in time of peace."
The strong emphasis on volunteering (trained, qualified and classified) also allows redirecting to the sector of Civil Defense,in case of necessity, many human and professional resources.
The organization that coordinates the civil protection in Italy is the Civil Protection Department, reporting directly to the Presidency of the Council of Ministers. This situates it in a "higher" position than the departments directly dependent on a "simple" Ministry, thus facilitating the coordination of state resources - and of all the other ministries - in case of emergency.
The current National Head of Department is the physician Guido Bertolaso. The Head of Civil Protection within a municipality is the Mayor, serving as the Municipal Civil Protection Authority (Article 15 of Law 225/92).
As described in art. 11 of the forementioned law, the operational structures that the system of Civil Protection uses are:
a) The national firefighters unit (VV.FF.);
b) The armed forces (armed forces);
c) The police (PS, DC and Local Police);
d) The State Forestry (C.F.S.);
e) The national Technical Services (ENEL and Telecom);
f) The national Scientific Research Groups (Universities), the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) and other research institutions;
g) The Italian Red Cross (C.R.I.);
h) The structures of the National Health Service (NHS);
i) Voluntary organizations (NPO Civil Protection);
j) The National Mountain Rescue Corp (C.N.S.A.).
As you can see the Italian Red Cross is legally part of of the National System of Civil Protection, which makes it involved as leader in all situations that is called to operate.
Whoever joins the Italian Red Cross automatically becomes part of this structure and will be called to be actively involved in the duties arised on the territory.
The Italian Red Cross is structured with its own legislation that defines its duties and regulates its activities both during emergency or planning state.
The CRI Central Committee decision no 39 of 10.24.2006 stated the rule book for central and territorial organization of the Italian Red Cross in the field of Civil Defense and MaxiEmergencies;decision comming to replace and upgrade the previous resolution 104, 12.21.1999
|
Civil Protection