Dubai Aluminium (Dubal), a major aluminium smelter, recently held a disaster drill to confirm its crisis and business continuity management (CBCM) system integrated smoothly with the local government emergency services.

Abdulla Al Abbar, business continuity certified expert (BCCE) and manager, CBCM, said: “Participants in the exercise – which included Dubal’s Assets Protection & Loss Prevention departments, the Dubal Medical Centre, Dubai Civil Defense, Dubai Union Ambulance and the Dubai Police worked seamlessly side-by-side in an extremely professional and efficient way.”

For Dubal, which owns and operates one of the world’s largest single-site primary aluminium smelters and is widely accepted as the UAE’s industrial flagship, the exercise confirmed that its CBCM system is not only comprehensive but also appropriately structured for the facility’s needs.

“The development of Dubal’s Crisis and Emergency Management system began in 2005 when Dubal conducted Plant Major Incident exercises involving external agencies such as Dubai’s Civil Defence, Police and Police Ambulance services.”

“These exercises highlighted a need for Dubal to develop greater competence in managing crisis and emergency situations. After an extensive global search into the best-available systems, we selected the CBCM best suited to Dubal’s needs and began implementing the same in December 2006. Over the past six years, we have gone through all the required phases to establish the system – including thorough training through mock scenarios leading to emergency and crisis management responses,” he added.

“Whereas our last major drill in 2005 was hampered by a lack of co-ordination and the absence of a formal system at Dubal, this month’s drill was performed excellently,” Al Abbar explained.

“From the command post in Dubal’s Emergency Centre down to the response personnel on the ground, the decision-making was sound and the melioration actions appropriate. Everyone involved worked together as one team, which enhanced the effectiveness of the emergency and crisis management process immensely,” he added. – TradeArabia News Service