Chamber approves project on disaster prevention

The Chamber of Deputies approved this Tuesday (10) a bill that reformulates the legislation on disaster prevention and stipulates deadlines for the preparation of civil defense plans. The proposal will be sent to the Senate.

The approved text is a substitute for the rapporteur, deputy Zucco (Republicanos-RS), for Senate Bill 2012/22, including new obligations for entrepreneurs who carry out activities with the risk of accident or disaster.

In addition to having to prepare prior risk analysis or when modifying the project, the company will have to have a contingency plan, continuously monitor medium or high risk factors for accidents or disasters and periodically carry out simulated evacuation exercises and procedures with the local population.

These duties will be fulfilled according to the level of risk or potential for damage defined by the public authority.

Any change in security conditions must be immediately reported to the bodies of the National Civil Protection and Defense System (Sinpdec). The company will also have to allocate the necessary resources to guarantee the safety of the enterprise and to repair damage to human life, the environment and public property in the event of an accident or disaster.

The contingency plan will become a condition for issuing the environmental installation license in projects with a risk of disaster.

In the event of an imminent accident or disaster, the entrepreneur must issue advance warnings to the population to immediately evacuate the area; monitor and technically advise public authorities in all disaster response actions; provide temporary residence for those affected and promote the reconstruction of destroyed or damaged residences or pay the public authorities for resettlement.

Other actions will be:

• recover the degraded area and repair civil and environmental damage;
• provide continued assistance to the physical and mental health of those affected; It is
• pay for independent technical assistance, chosen by the affected communities and without interference, to guide them in their informed participation in the entire damage repair process.

When discussing the topic, deputy Rogério Correia (PT-MG) recalled that the project incorporates suggestions on how to improve the security of these projects. “We will have had eight years since the Mariana tragedy, and the territory has not even been recovered,” he said.

The rapporteur, deputy Zucco, considered the approval of the project opportune “due to the increasing number of natural or man-made tragedies that have been hitting the national territory in recent years”.

Contingency plan

Zucco’s text defines minimum aspects that must be included in the contingency plan of these companies, such as the description of the response actions to be developed, including hospital medical and psychological care, the distribution strategy for donations and supplies and shelter locations. .

They must also include:

• delimitation of potentially affected areas, indicating those that must be subject to special control and prohibited from subdivision, use and occupation of urban land;
• warning system, escape routes and safe points; It is
• organization of simulated exercises, with the participation of the population and Sinpdec bodies.

This plan or equivalent document must be reviewed periodically as defined by the supervisory body and whenever new risks arise or the level of risk of an accident or disaster increases.

Schools

The text also prohibits the permanence of schools and hospitals in areas at risk of disaster, and the entrepreneur is obliged to relocate them to a safe location before implementing their enterprise in agreement with the supporters of these institutions.

The company with a risky enterprise must carry out demographic registration in the potentially affected areas, as defined in the environmental licensing process and in the contingency plan.

Bottom

The text expands the expenses that can be made with resources from the National Fund for Public Calamities, Protection and Civil Defense (Funcap), such as emergency support and risk management actions, including real-time monitoring in high and very high risk areas and the production of early warnings of disasters.

Funcap may also pay for support actions for communities in vulnerable situations.

Within the scope of the National Civil Protection and Defense Policy, the project places responsibility for carrying out this monitoring in conjunction with the Union and the states. In the case of early warnings, sirens or cell phone messages may be used to inform the population about the risk of disaster and guide them on how to behave in an emergency situation.

Unity

The federal government must maintain, in the risk and disaster information and monitoring system, meteorological, hydrological and geological data on risk areas.

For priority and continued assistance to the physical and mental health of people affected by disasters, the Union will have to transfer additional resources to states and municipalities through the Unified Health System (SUS).

Deadline for plans

According to the text, the national civil protection and defense plan must contain criteria and guidelines for classifying risk into low, medium, high and very high, and must be established within 18 months and updated every three years with social participation through public hearings and consultations.

State plans will have a period of 24 months to come into effect, with a further 24 months to adapt to the national plan after its publication. The update will be every two years.

In the case of municipalities included in the national register of cities with areas susceptible to disasters, which have the obligation to prepare a contingency plan for protection and civil defense, they must carry it out within one year of their inclusion in this register. The update will be annual, also with the participation of society.

In relation to the procedures for removing the population from risk areas, the substitute adds another condition for this to occur: transport and storage of furniture and belongings of the population removed from risk areas whenever there is sufficient time.

Concepts

The project adds several concepts to the law on civil protection and defense policy, such as accident, homelessness, disaster, recovery and disaster response.

*With information from Agência Câmara de Notícias

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