AN EXTRAORDINARY MISSION

On 16 December 2010, staff at the Azerbaijani Ministry for Emergency Situations celebrated their professional holiday and their fifth anniversary. It was precisely on that day in 2005 that this vital structure was created by decree of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and, on 9 December 2006, he issued an instruction that staff of the ministry should celebrate 16 December every year as their professional holiday.

It has to be said that the ministry has been called upon to solve some difficult tasks. Azerbaijan's unique geological situation, including seismic zones which lead to frequent earthquakes and the eruption of mud volcanoes and all kinds of landslides and avalanches, creates a constant threat to people's lives, homes and property. Farms and other undertakings frequently suffer from seasonal rises in the level of the Caspian and flooding rivers. Avalanches in the mountains of the Great Caucasus, forest fires and other natural disasters represent a great challenge for the Azerbaijani Ministry for Emergency Situations.

But it is not only natural disasters that present a threat. A network of gas- and oil-pipelines crosses Azerbaijan and there are oil and gas extraction and chemical plants in Baku and on the Absheron Peninsula and other regions of the country. All these demand a readiness to respond to emergency situations and man-made disasters.

How are tasks being fulfilled?

There was not only a festive ceremony to mark the ministry's fifth anniversary on 16 December. On that same day, exercises by units of the ministry which respond to all kinds of disasters using helicopters, lifeboats and other types of rescue equipment were held in the Baku coastal settlement of Shikhovo. The exercises were observed by several ministers: Emergency Situations - Kamaladdin Heydarov; Defence - Safar Abiyev; Health - Ogtay Shiraliyev; and also the Chief of the State Border Service Elchin Guliyev; the Turkish Deputy Prime Minister and State Minister Cemil Cicek and the Russian and Turkish ambassadors to Azerbaijan Vladimir Dorokhin and Hulusi Kilic. The exercises simulated an earthquake and a fire following explosions at an oil refinery on dry land and on an oil platform at sea.

A helicopter and an aircraft of the ministry's aviation detachment, fire-fighting craft and lifeboats, fire engines and other equipment were brought in for the exercises. Commenting on the exercises, Kamaladdin Heydarov said they had gone successfully to plan and had demonstrated the ministry's readiness for any emergency. "The professionalism of the personnel and the technical potential of the Azerbaijani Ministry for Emergency Situations enable all tasks to be carried out. The ministry has work schedules in Turkey, Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, and is planning for future joint exercises with these countries," the minister told journalists. He said that not only physical, but staff exercises, too, would be held to test joint reaction to a possible incident on the borders of these states.

At the celebrations the minister, Col-Gen Kamaladdin Heydarov said that in its five years the ministry had succeeded not only in expanding its activities but also in substantially strengthening its material-technical base. The ministry's services of civil defence, fire protection, industrial and mining safety control, material resources, rescue at sea and emergency rescue in the Caspian basin, the Izotop special combine and other structures are operating at full capacity. In particular, an administration building, as well as buildings of other structures subordinate to the ministry have been built and commissioned over the past five years.

Integrated construction work is now being carried out at the administration building of the Emergencies Ministry of the Naxcivan Autonomous Republic, at the State Agency for Material Resources elevator in Ganja, at the base of an aviation detachment at Sangachal, in the Gabalinskiy, Lenkoran, Tyurkan and Sangachal regiments, the Ganja brigade of troops of the ministry's civil defence, as well as on the buildings of a number of other structures. In line with the ministry's area of activity, special testing and analysis laboratories have been set up in its sub-structures.

Over the past five years, 279 French and German-manufactured fire engines, two Finnish-made high ladders and 6,000 sets of special clothing and protective equipment have been acquired and put into service by the ministry. Other acquisitions include: two special-purpose vehicles, 46 emergency rescue vehicles, over 200 crews with special equipment of various kinds for rescue operations, 50 German-made motor-cycles, 24 bomb-defusing systems and four high-speed and multi-functional lifeboats, 50 different types of lifeboats for rescue at sea, six helicopters, one BE-200 amphibious aircraft, special clothing for personnel, special navigational equipment, mobile laboratories to monitor buildings in line with technical safety standards and other vital equipment and technology. 

On 14 December last year a new special risk rescue service base was commissioned for the ministry. The base consists of a headquarters, buildings for classes in mountaineering, tactical-fire, medical and diving training, a dormitory, a canteen, a medical centre and a technological park. As part of the training process, an operation was carried out to haul a sunken vehicle from the water and rescue the injured driver. Everything necessary for the rescue service is provided at the base and it is fitted with all vital equipment and technology. In the period under review groups of the special risk rescue service have taken part in 1,663 search and rescue operations. Some 1,885 people have been rescued and the bodies of 319 deceased persons have been pulled out of shattered vehicles, from under debris and out of locked rooms etc.

Over the past five years, 25,435 natural or man-made fires have been extinguished and 150,000 hectares of grain crops and 12,000 hectares of woodland have been protected from fire. The minister said that the country had suffered fire damage amounting to 28.563m manats. As a result 373 people have been injured and 224 killed. Some 685 people were rescued at sea in 11 months of 2010 and 2,291 over the whole five years.

An Academy of the Emergencies Ministry and various regional training and education centres to train highly-qualified personnel have been created. In addition, 'Short-term measures to prevent mud-flows and flooding in the Azerbaijani Republic' have been drawn up and approved by the cabinet of ministers. An 'Azerbaijani-Dutch joint project for preventing mud-flows and flooding', drawn up by the Dutch companies Deltares and Royal Haskoing, has been presented and approved. "Work is currently continuing in this direction. This programme provides for work on the prompt prevention of flooding of the Kura and Araz rivers and, for this purpose, the creation of culvert systems and work on building dams," Heydarov noted. "7,000 people whose homes were damaged by the elements in Azerbaijan in the summer of 2010 have been given aid to the tune of 6,410,639 manats." Following President Ilham Aliyev's instruction, 15,656 dwellings had been built and commissioned for the disaster victims by 1 October.

The construction of multi-storey buildings is now strictly controlled. "It should be noted that in the past state control of safety in construction was very poor. When land was handed over for building, town-planning requirements for projects were ignored. Infringements of building regulations and regulations for the construction of buildings close to other houses, near high-tension power lines and in areas of engineering communications and construction were the norm. Failure to comply with fire regulations on building sites created obstacles for equipment trying to fight fires. Gross violations of standards on building sites has had serious consequences, and this is directly linked to people's safety. Thus the monitoring of building work was passed over to the Emergencies Ministry following a decree by the head of state. And so, in this sphere, the ministry prepared standards and regulations of construction which correspond to local seismic conditions," the head of the ministry explained.

During construction work, the ministry provides for the protection of buildings and other on-site structures from the elements, as well as for their strengthening and stability. Normative documents for safety in construction and for monitoring building work have been prepared. Building construction is suspended when infringements of regulations are detected. Construction companies are being given time to eliminate these flaws.

All types of safety

The ministry's powers also include ensuring radiation safety and carrying out radio-ecological monitoring of the environment. A general plan for the lay-out of industrial buildings which constitute a threat has been drawn up. Work is constantly underway to create a state register of these facilities, including hydro-technical buildings. The ministry, together with the Special State Protection Service and other structures is taking an active part in the work of the Directorate for the safety of trunk oil- and gas-pipelines. Together with this service, and following a special plan of action, the ministry is working in all sectors of territory occupied by pipelines.

The ministry is also involved in ensuring the country's food security. The Sangachal grain elevator of the directorate of the State Grain Fund of the ministry's State Agency for Material Resources was commissioned on 14 December 2010. The elevator consists of ten storage reservoirs, each with a capacity of 10,000 tonnes. All the necessary conditions have been created here for the storage and protection of grain. In order to provide a normal work regime for the grain elevator a railway line and an asphalt road have been laid. The minister said that the new grain elevator will play an important role in providing the country with grain.

Heydarov said that an elevator with a capacity of 30,000 tonnes has also been commissioned in the Naxcivan Autonomous Republic. By the end of January the construction of an elevator with a capacity of 60,000 tonnes will be completed in Ganja. In addition, the construction of a 100,000 tonne elevator is also envisaged. "In order to ensure the food security of the population of Azerbaijan, the ministry's State Grain Fund has signed agreements for the storage of 865,000 tonnes of top-quality wheat. Imports of 645,000 tonnes of wheat, as provided for in the agreements, have already been guaranteed. Work is proceeding according to a schedule approved by the parties. Local grain is also being collected in the State Grain Fund," the minister noted.

The Emergencies Ministry attaches great significance to cooperation in its work and devotes particular attention to the development of relations with prestigious international and regional organizations which have a wealth of experience in handling emergency situations, including with the corresponding state structures of foreign countries. But the Azerbaijani Emergency Ministry's potential and experience already enable it to take part in all kinds of complex rescue operations, both within the country and beyond its borders. A vivid example of this was the recovery operation after last year's mudflows in Azerbaijan and its participation in putting out forest fires in Russia and Israel.