14th Jul 2021
On 13.07.2021 a videoconference meeting was held between representatives of the Ministry of Interior and representatives of various institutions at the local level for the territory of Sofia Municipality, the first to respond to emergencies in cases of surface water contamination with pathogens. The meeting was attended by servants of the "Communication and Information Systems" Directorate (CISD-MoI), Directorate General "Fire Safety and Civil Protection" (DGFSCP-MoI), Sofia Regional Health Inspectorate (SRHI-MH), Regional Inspectorate of Environment and Water - Sofia (RIEW-Sofia), Emergency Aid and Prevention Directorate - Sofia Municipality (DAPP-SM) and Sofiyska Voda AD - water supply and sewerage operator of the Sofia Municipality.
With a welcoming speech to the participants, the Director of CISD-MoI, Mr. Mladen Petrov, opened the meeting. The essence, goals and objectives of the PathoCERT project were presented by the technical coordinator of the project, Mr. Demetrios Eliades, Research Assistant Professor, KIOS Research and Innovation Center of Excellence, University of Cyprus in Nicosia (KIOS CoE). The need to form a team of experts to support the project activities was explained by Mrs. Francesca Grossi from the Collaborating centre on sustainable consumption and production (CSCP) in Wuppertal, Federal Republic of Germany. The goal is all innovative technologies to be tested locally and the results to be stored for future system upgrades.
The meeting was also attended by Mr. Petar Bonev, a longtime servant of the National Operations Center at the DGFSCP-MoI, who currently serves in a similar position at the for Emergency Response Coordination Centre (ERCC) in the Directorate General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (DG ECHO - European Commission). He shared his experience and made a brief analysis of the events in 2020 - 2021. As expected, due to the pandemic of COVID-19, ERCC has performed many more actions than expected. Despite staff fatigue, ERCC staff felt satisfied with their duty to serve citizens and society.
During the meeting, two discussions were held between the participants. The first concerned the regulations related to emergency management - laws, regulations and standard operating procedures for interaction. The second discussion focused entirely on the preparation of the practical exercise in the summer of 2023.
The participants expressed interest in the new technologies and wished to be informed in due time about the progress of the project, promising to support with competency the forthcoming activities. The next meeting with the community of practitioners will take place in the fall of 2021.