Disasters tend to increase inequality gaps, affecting the most vulnerable populations more strongly. In addition, the World Meteorological Organization estimates that the impact of disasters today is seven times greater than it was 50 years ago. In just minutes, a disaster can undo decades of progress.
Although we cannot avoid these dangers, we can prepare ourselves. That is why it is important that our airports are prepared to withstand the increased demand for the transportation of people and goods in disaster situations.
In a global alliance between the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Deutsche Post Group (DHL), the “Get Airports Ready for Disaster” (GARD) is implemented. Through evaluations and protocols, this program seeks to strengthen the capacities of airports in order to have a fast, effective and efficient response and thus reduce the losses that may be caused, but, above all, save lives.
The GARD Programs, in addition to training airport personnel, strengthen the articulation between institutions for a better response capacity in the face of emergencies and disasters. Thus, the coordination between different airports in crisis situations will alleviate the demand for mobility of personnel and humanitarian aid goods in the affected area, optimizing the resources necessary for an adequate response.
“We have come to propose a humanitarian perspective, an emergency not only affects the region and the country, but will also cause the arrival of many passengers, volunteers, donations and we have to know how to manage these new unforeseen resources to optimize the response that, as airports we can provide in the event of a disaster”, says Kendall Sanchez, DRT and GARD coordinator for DHL Americas.
Each edition of the GARD Program brings together officials with the purpose of evaluating the airport in four categories: air operations, facilities, passenger terminal and cargo terminal. Subsequently, the contributions are consolidated in an emergency and disaster response protocol, which articulates all the actors involved from the airport facilities. This protocol is a “living document” that must be updated periodically.
“Coordinated work is essential to optimize our response as a system in the face of an emergency, avoiding duplication of efforts and managing our resources in the best possible way to care for the affected people,” says César Negrete, secretary general of the National Defense Institute. Civil.
Globally, the GARD Program has trained more than 800 participants at 43 airports in 21 countries. In Peru, the program is implemented in coordination with the National Civil Defense Institute (INDECI) and with the support of the Humanitarian Assistance Bureau of the United States Agency for International Development (BHA/USAID). As of 2021, it has managed to train more than 240 participants and 30 facilitators with a presence in eight airports nationwide.
“We are generating a network of airports that can be effective in the event of a disaster, not only in the place itself, but that can serve as backup. For example, in the event of an emergency in Cusco, the Arequipa airport could be a main support for humanitarian response assistance. That is the idea, to generate a network of support and mutual collaboration”, explains Nicolás Rocca, country head of security and operational resilience at DHL Peru.
Previous emergencies in the country have highlighted the importance of having a good response capacity. For this reason, in 2014 the program initially carried out studies at two airports in Peru: the Jorge Chávez International Airport (Callao) and the Capitán FAP Renán Elías Olivera Airport (Pisco).
Additional studies followed at the Capitan FAP Jose Abelardo Quiñones Gonzales airport (Chiclayo, 2018) and the Las Palmas air base (Lima, 2019). Likewise, an update was carried out at the Jorge Chávez International Airport (Callao, 2019), which received the name of GARD Plus. This strategy was established in order to have alternate airport facilities at Jorge Chávez better prepared in the event of a major earthquake on the central coast that would affect the country’s main airport.
In 2021, four GARD evaluations were carried out in the cities of Cusco, Pucallpa, Puerto Maldonado and Arequipa. The development of a GARD at the Pisco airport and the development of coordination protocols for the four airports corresponding to this stage are expected for next year.
The GARD Program, through the training of airport personnel, promotes better preparation, strengthening the response to an emergency, and consequently, the construction of a more equitable and sustainable future, leaving no one behind.
