Spain and Portugal join forces in the fight against natural disasters

euronews (in English)

The two southern European countries can now join forces in case of an emergency thanks to coordinated communication, training and new technical equipment.

Transcript

00:00Climate change is making natural disasters across the EU more frequent and intense.

00:08In the last five years, wildfires in Spain and Portugal devastated nearly one million hectares.

00:14And these countries are now joining forces to combat such catastrophes.

00:20In 2022, a high intensity and unpredictable wildfire devastated this cross-border area in Spain.

00:27It brings me bad memories.

00:29Because here we live hard moments.

00:33The whole town, we try to fight this happy fire.

00:40A fire is practically a catastrophe.

00:45It is being seen that they are becoming more and more virulent.

00:48We need, not only the means we have in Salamanca, but also the means from outside.

00:58This cross-border cooperation is what the EU project Ariane Plus is set up for.

01:03It's managed from this emergency center in Galicia.

01:06This Spanish region, together with Castilla y León and the north of Portugal,

01:10created an emergency plan to prevent and respond to major disasters such as heavy storms and wildfires and floods.

01:16The project aims to benefit 600,000 people.

01:20It consists of coordinating, planning, analyzing the risks,

01:26sensitizing the population,

01:28making training and simulations for both the population and the operational services,

01:33and seeing the necessary equipment to face the risks.

01:38Here, emergency units are reliving the wildfire that took place in 2022,

01:43a fire drill set to test joint coordination.

01:47Effective communication is crucial.

01:50Teams arriving from abroad need to rapidly integrate with the local units following the cooperation protocol.

02:03The single operation command structure created under the project creates the risk situation,

02:08the region where the disaster occurs leaves the operation.

02:16We rehearse our work procedures.

02:19We see in which aspects we can improve them.

02:22The operatives that come to do the simulation with us, outside our administration,

02:26know what our work procedures are and how we are going to integrate them in a real case.

02:33The Ariane Plus budget amounts to 4 million euros.

02:36The EU policy cohesion fund financed 75%.

02:4025% was funded by the regions of Galicia, Castilla y León and the north of Portugal.

02:45Coordinated communications, training, new equipment,

02:48Ariane Plus should help Spain and Portugal join forces and overcome burdens when an emergency strikes.

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