Green Tent Calls for Developing Early Warning Systems to Predict Future Disasters

Doha, May 12 (QNA) - Participants in a symposium held by the Green Tent of the "A Flower Each Spring" program have called for the establishment of research centers in the Arab countries to help decision makers in managing crises and developing early warning systems to predict future disasters. The participants in the symposium affirmed that the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic uncovered the necessity of maximizing the role of science and scientists and developing the capabilities of scientific research to address crises. They said that experts, academics and specialists from different Arab countries agree that tribulations that have afflicted humans will continue to exist in contemporary and subsequent nations, referring to earthquakes, hurricanes, droughts, climate change, volcanoes and landslides, floods and famines, storms and other epidemics and viral and bacterial diseases. The participants methods of managing crises and avoiding their occurrence or severity, including forming a crisis management team, establishing early warning systems, training workers in crisis management and analysis, and following up the implementation of the plans set up to face them, along with transparency and credibility in presenting the facts to the public opinion. They stressed the importance of the academic and research side in facing epidemics and crises and how to manage them, in addition to maximizing the role of minds and scholars to solve problems and meet the needs of society, calling for the formulation of policies, setting priorities and focusing on what post-pandemic societies need and self-reliance in crisis management. The participants called for legislation and laws appropriate to the current stage and need that these laws work to organize cities and achieve sustainability to avoid the negative effects of disasters or crises that may occur in the future, noting that handling risks and crises and managing them are one of the developments in the Arab national security system. Studying and predicting these risks before they occur require a unified Arab or Gulf strategy for crisis management with a proactive approach to cope with disasters, they noted. They pointed out that disasters and crises come suddenly and in an unexpected way, adding this why governments must prepare and draw policies, form permanent committees and design plans and strategies to face future disasters, calling on countries to have a mechanism to predict, diagnose and prepare for potential disasters while studying their economic and environmental risks and the extent of their threat to human life. (QNA)