BUJUMBURA March 4th (ABP) – Under the theme: “innovative technologies at the service of civil protection”, the Minister of the Interior, Community Development and Public Security, Mr. Martin Niteretse, made a statement to the occasion of the celebration of the World Day dedicated to Civil Protection.
According to the Assistant to the Minister of the Interior, Brigadier General Célestin Nibonabonansize, during an interview given to the press on Thursday, February 29, 2024,
The celebration of that World Civil Protection Day began on March 1, 2009, after Burundi effectively joined the International Civil Protection Organization (ICPO) on February 19, 2009.
He said that that year’s theme was chosen with the objective of promoting emergency preparedness and response, with a view to strengthening community resilience. It is also an opportunity to promote public-private partnership in the field of innovative technologies, for strengthening the capacities of civil protection, he said.
According to him, throughout the world, innovative technologies are constantly evolving, and Burundi must align with Global Agreements and Frameworks to develop technologies for collecting, analysing, processing and disseminating data, allowing decision-making for the protection of the population and their property, he noted.
To that end, Burundi has equipped itself with the necessary tools, on the one hand, including multi-risk mapping made more accessible and usable, thanks to an operational GeoNode platform. The latter is an essential decision-making tool. On the other hand, the national risk prevention and disaster management strategy, the management of harmonized contingency plans at all levels strengthen the technical and operational capacity of civil protection in the execution of its missions, he said. . He noted that innovative technologies in emergency preparedness and response constitute an essential component of any effective disaster management system and the establishment of an operational multi-hazard early warning system will enable communities to be more resilient to disasters. Mr. Nibonabonansize noted that the celebration of that day takes place at a time when Burundi continues to suffer the harmful consequences of the effects of climate change. Those are floods, rising water levels in Lake Tanganyika and landslides, which cause displacement of the population and the destruction of public and private infrastructure.
He took that opportunity to ask everyone, as far as they are concerned, to carry out activities in the direction of mitigating vulnerability, for risk prevention and protection of the environment. He reiterated the government’s commitment to spare no effort to achieve the objectives of the ICPO, through the strengthening of civil protection structures and the promotion of public and private partnership, in order to promote innovative technologies.