Civil Protection Week, a meeting with the Prefects, representatives and operating structures of the territories

"The activity we carry out, as a System, is of fundamental importance. We continue on this path for the well-being and safety of all our fellow citizens, all together: with you Prefects, colleagues from the regional civil protection and fire brigades". These are the words of thanks addressed by the Head of Department, Angelo Borrelli, to the Prefects of the provincial capitals, the regional civil protection officers, the regional fire brigade commanders and the representatives of Anci, Upi and Uncem, during the meeting held this morning at the Department's headquarters in videoconnection with the Prefectures of Italy.

Today's meeting is part of the appointments scheduled for the second edition of the National Civil Protection Week, established by the Prime Minister on 1 April 2019 to promote and disseminate civil protection activities throughout the country.

"We are working on some important issues", said Borrelli, "the first is the national alert to the population because ever since I took office as Head of Department I experienced the sense of great responsibility that mayors have in our system and the difficulty they have in managing the local alert with few resources and technologies available. This is how the idea of It-Alert was born".

Another issue addressed by the Head of Department was the planning of civil protection activities, with the Directive that will soon be closed and that provides for the first time that the plans are standardized, homogeneous and use a single technology to give all actors timely information that serves for the prevention and management of the emergency.

We are currently dealing with a civil protection system profoundly changed since its establishment, pointed out the Head of Cabinet of the Minister of the Interior, Bruno Frattasi. Previously all activities were focused on "after the event" but today we start from forecasting and prevention and only afterwards comes the intervention due to the calamitous event. "In other words, we are getting ready to face what is the "society of risk"", and in this context the alert to the population is inserted with the It-Alert platform.

The interventions that followed during the meeting, underlined in particular the importance of spreading the culture of civil protection also through the inclusion of a dedicated path in the civic education programmes in schools for which the Department has disseminated a publication available online on the site, and training - permanent and qualified - aimed at all those working in the field of civil protection.