Alessia Genoves
Contributor
The Legislative Assembly approved with 67 votes in favor the reforms to the Law on Civil Protection, Prevention and Mitigation of Disasters, contained in Opinion No. 62, issued by the Legislation and Constitutional Points Commission.
The amendments incorporate a new National Urban Search and Rescue Subsystem (SISUSAR) to strengthen response capacity in urban environments in the event of emergencies such as natural disasters, structural collapses or other incidents that require specialized search and rescue operations.
The original Law, approved in 2005, aims to “prevent, mitigate and effectively address natural and man-made disasters in the country, and deploy the public civil protection service in their eventuality.”
With the reform of the Law, a new administrative structure is established that involves SISUSAR.
Law Reform
The reforms approved by legislators create SISUSAR as a specialized support body in responding to incidents that require search and rescue operations in urban environments.
According to article 34-A, SISUSAR is created “with emphasis on urban environments and based on the need or characteristics that pose the existing risks.”
The SISUSAR is defined in article 34-B as “an organic set of components articulated by functional and procedural relationships, focused on complying with good administrative and legal practices and policies, which guarantee the methodology and the establishment of strategic objectives for the existence and the efficient performance of national urban search and rescue groups.”
This subsystem will contemplate components related to the “technical preparation of the groups and their members, guaranteeing their due accreditation, as well as timely deployment, operational and functional autonomy, training, plans, integration and coordination, the necessary protocols and procedures. and the equipment of the groups that make it up.”
The organizational structure of SISUSAR will be made up of five different instances, starting, as established in article 34-C: a) the General Directorate of Civil Protection, b) Fire Department of El Salvador, c) National Civil Police, d ) Solidarity Fund for Health, e) representation of non-profit relief institutions or with another legal status, which meet the established suitability requirements.
A Special Regulation of SISUSAR will regulate the form of integration of the organizations, their coordination and operation mechanisms, as well as the participation of civil society representation.
Urban Search and Rescue Groups
According to article 34-D, the Urban Search and Rescue Groups (USAR Groups) are “an operational component of emergency response, made up of qualified, trained personnel and governed by an administrative base whose objective will be the search, location of victims and recovery in urban environment”.
To belong to SISUSAR, all USAR groups, whether local or national, public or private, must be previously accredited to “certify compliance with national and international standards in the coordination and operational management of structural collapse scenarios, according to their level of ability.”
USAR Group Accreditation
Article 34-E establishes that the accreditation process of the USAR Groups will be in charge of a Technical Accreditation Committee and will be governed by the Accreditation and Reaccreditation Manual issued by the Ministry of the Interior and Territorial Development.
After the accreditation or reaccreditation process, the Technical Committee will prepare a report on compliance with the criteria and standards by the applicant, which will be sent to the Minister of the Interior and Territorial Development to issue, if appropriate, the respective accreditation or reaccreditation. .
A USAR Group will lose its accreditation, through a reasoned resolution and after due procedure, in the event of non-compliance or serious disobedience of the rules and procedures that endanger operations, the lives of people or cause serious damage to the integrity or proper functioning of SISUSAR or the good image of the Republic.
Article 34-F establishes that duly accredited National USAR groups “are obliged to comply with the manuals, guides, protocols, procedures, planning guidelines, instructions and other operational provisions issued by the authorities of the National Civil Protection System, Disaster Prevention and Mitigation that is in charge of conducting USAR operations in each event.”
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