A mass evacuation plan for Bahrain's population in the event of a nuclear disaster could soon be drawn up, it has emerged.

It is not on the list of five priorities for the national disaster plan currently being put together, but will be necessary in the future, said National Commission for Disaster Management executive office head Ahmed Hussain.

"Bahrain was never 'designed' for such a disaster to happen but we realise this should be part of our long-term planning," Hussain told a press conference at the Civil Defence headquarters in Manama.

"Setting up underground bunkers, putting together an evacuation plan and educating the population on what to do in the event of a nuclear catastrophe, are all part of discussions which are now under way before the plan is finalised. We will look at all the issues," he said.

The press conference followed two days of deliberations at a national workshop on disaster risk reduction.

The workshop, attended by representatives of several ministries, was organised by the Interior Ministry in collaboration with the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR).

Hussain said the idea was to reduce the impact should disaster strike and be prepared to handle it. "The better we are able to handle it, the more we would be able to reduce fatalities," he said.

The five priority areas for Bahrain are a health disaster, such as the spread of a disease like bird flu or Sars, air crashes; oil spills in the sea; fires in high-rise buildings; and natural calamities related to climate change.

Bahrain will finalise its contribution to the Global Assessment Report (GAR) on disaster management in September this year, but the plan itself would be ready later, said  Hussain.

"However, we cannot have a date for a final plan to be ready since it is an ongoing process," he said.

"Something which is not seen as a disaster these days could be a high priority area within a few months or years. These plans will always be updated."

Hussain said the GAR would have a global launch in Bahrain in May 2009. ISDR regional programme officer Luna Abu-Swaireh said disaster trends were changing all the time.

"Climate change, threat of war, natural disasters, rapid urbanisation and increasing vulnerability of the population are all risk factors," she said.

Abu-Swaireh said the idea was to try to prevent these from happening, but that was not entirely possible. "What we cannot prevent, we must learn to deal with. That is the issue now," she said.

Abu-Swaireh said that in the recent past, there had been some disasters with global impact.

"The tsunami, for example, had global repercussions and so did the recent earthquake in China," she said.

"These were natural calamities, which could not have been prevented but dealing with them properly helped minimise the impact."

Abu-Swaireh said the Bahraini government was highly committed to ensuring that it becomes a leader in disaster management in the region.

"This training and briefing is to ensure that there is a very high level of co-operation between all ministries, other bodies and the population if a disaster does happen," she said.

Civil Defence director general Brigadier Khalid Al Absi said Bahrain had only two disasters, which had tested its preparedness.

The Gulf Air crash in August 2000 and the Al Dana dhow disaster two years ago tested us severely and we came out on top," he said.

Civil Defence is particularly engaged in co-ordinating with owners of high-rise buildings in Bahrain, to ensure they are safe to live in and have fool-proof evacuation and disaster relief plans in place, said Brig Al Absi.

"There is also a plan in place to ensure speedy communication through Terrestrial Trunked Radio, an open digital trunked radio standard for professional mobile radio users, among all rescue agencie