Sister Cities International

U.S./Islamic Sister Cities Emergency Preparedness Exchange Program

What is the U.S./Islamic Sister Cities Emergency Preparedness Exchange Program?

Program Updates and Highlights

Participating Organizations

What is the U.S./Islamic Sister Cities Emergency Preparedness Exchange Program?

Sister Cities International received a grant from the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) to link U.S. and predominately Muslim communities through their common need for emergency preparedness training and know-how. The grant, totaling nearly $200,000, will initially focus on four sister city partnerships, but will eventually generate a larger international Sister Cities Emergency Preparedness Network to ensure that the lessons learned will be sustained by both U.S. and international communities worldwide.

Four U.S. sister city programs with existing partnerships in Islamic regions were selected through a competitive process to participate in the program. The communities of Tucson, Arizona (Almaty, Kazakhstan); Arvada, Colorado (Kyzylorda, Kazakstan); Houston, Texas (Baku, Azerbaijan); and Fort Worth, Texas (Bandung, Indonesia), were awarded approximately $40,000 each to organize reciprocal visits of emergency preparedness delegations between the U.S. and Islamic communities, focusing on information exchange, planning methodologies, tools and techniques, and the roles of emergency preparedness management officials in response to a catastrophic event.

The emergency preparedness project is part of SCI's "Sister Cities United for International Peace and Friendship" initiative, launched following September 11, 2001, to encourage sister city programs to increase their involvement with underserved regions, especially in predominately Muslim communities.

Program Updates and Highlights

Starting September 1, 2002, all four communities initiated their exchange programs. The following is a summary of each program and highlights from each exchange.

Tucson-Almaty Emergency Preparedness Exchange Program

The Tucson-Almaty Sister Cities Committee emergency preparedness program, under the direction of Dan S. Martin, decided to focus on ways to mitigate local service disruption of potable water service/source by natural or other means in the city of Almaty, Kazakhstan. The city of Tucson has begun an innovative pilot project for continuous, online monitoring of their potable water system. The focus of the exchange will be the establishment of a plan to assist the City of Almaty to determine its current level of preparedness for dealing with a potable water source emergency and develop the systems, policies and procedures necessary to mitigate the risks to the public as a result.

Both Tucson and Almaty are, or soon will be, dependent on a single source water supply, thus creating the need to develop similar emergency preparedness procedures. As the largest city in Kazakhstan, with over 1.1 million habitants, there are two major areas of concern in Almaty: (1) the need for adequate policies and procedures to monitor and control the steady state of the potable water system and (2) the need for quick, immediate and comprehensive communication with the inhabitants of both cities in the event of an emergency.

This project will establish an ongoing communications network between water officials in Tucson and Almaty. At the conclusion of the grant, a near-term and long-term plan will be published for the Sister Cities Emergency Preparedness Network and the project will be made a permanent part of the Sister City program in Tucson.

Arvada-Kyzylorda Emergency Preparedness Exchange Program

The focus of the Arvada Sister Cities International emergency preparedness program, under the direction of Michael D. Coen, will be to teach disaster response organization and citizen response to emergency situations that could affect either city. This project will be accomplished through the education of community leaders, professionals and citizens, on a train-the-trainer level, in the Incident Control System (ICS) and Citizen Emergency Response Team (CERT) models. The development of a relationship of international goodwill will benefit both communities in responding to emergency situations.

Kyzylorda, Kazakhstan, has unique difficulties in implementing a coordinated response to an emergency situation that may threaten the city at large. Limited equipment availability hinders the transportation and communication aspects of emergency response. Given Kyzylorda's proximity to the Aral Sea, nuclear testing sites and the Bicaynor Cosmodrome (Russia?s location for their space shuttle and satellite program), the citizens of Kyzylorda are very aware of the potential health and safety threats that may impact their livelihoods. For this reason, the CERT program was chosen, as citizens are likely to be the first responders to crisis situations in their sector of the city.

Houston-Baku Emergency Preparedness Exchange Program

The Houston-Baku Sister City Association, Inc. (HBSCA), in collaboration with Baylor College of Medicine, under the direction of Kenneth L. Mattox, M.D., is focusing on exchanges between emergency preparedness officials in Houston, Texas, and Baku, Azerbaijan, with the goal of developing a thorough Disaster Management Plan for Baku. The absence of an existing infrastructure specifically devoted to disaster management in Azerbaijan makes it difficult to identify the emergency preparedness priorities of Baku. The project therefore has two primary objectives: (1) conducting an Emergency Preparedness Needs Assessment and (2) developing the preliminary Action Plan for the eventual creation of the Disaster Management Plan.

The project comes in a timely manner as the Azerbaijan Government and the United Nations Development Program have recently completed a feasibility study for a national disaster management training system. The City of Houston Emergency Management Division and the Texas Medical Center are well experienced in coordinating disaster management services related to a variety of natural as well as industrial hazards and the expertise of the project participants will benefit the emergency preparedness exchanges between the two cities.

Fort Worth-Bandung Emergency Preparedness Exchange Program

Fort Worth Sister Cities International, in collaboration with municipal, nonprofit and private resources, will be conducting reciprocal exchanges with the City of Bandung, Indonesia, to develop emergency preparedness capacity within the city in the areas of water, public health and disaster relief. Under the direction of Mae F. Johnson, the goal of the exchange program is to provide the City of Bandung Water Department with a professional analysis of its water supply and flood control processes, from a water production and public health point of view. In addition, Bandung utility officials will have appropriate training to develop an effective, all-hazards emergency preparedness plan in the event their system is the target of a terrorist/bioterrorist attack or natural disaster. A segment of the Bandung?s Public Health staff will be trained in CPR/First Aid in order to work as a first responder in an emergency situation. This exchange will provide both the City of Fort Worth and Bandung with critical information on preparing for public health emergencies.

At this time, the Fort Worth delegation has been unable to visit Bandung, due to the travel warnings issues by the U.S. Department of State following the terrorist attacks in Bali, Indonesia. Fort Worth Sister Cities International is currently exploring alternative options to fulfilling its goals outlined in its grant proposal.

March 2003 Emergency Preparedness Meeting in Washington, DC

On March 10 - 11, 2003, representatives from four U.S. cities and their international partners, involved in the emergency preparedness exchange program, visited Washington, D.C. for a series of meetings that showcased the important work each relationship is undertaking. They participated in meetings at the SCI office, presented by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA); Arlington County Fire Department, the first responders to the terrorist attacks on the Pentagon; and the U.S. Department of State's Bureau for Educational and Cultural Affairs. This event was part of a second exchange, in which the international participants returned to their U.S. host cities for additional meetings and events, after their time in Washington, D.C. As part of the meetings, each community presented an overview of their activities to date, lessons learned, and next steps. A complete overview of the presentations can be accessed by clicking on the respective community below:

To read more about the individual exchange programs, please visit our newsletter page.

Participating Organizations

The Bureau for Educational and Cultural Affairs

Sister Cities International

Individual program Web sites

Tucson-Almaty Sister Cities Committee

Arvada Sister Cities International

Houston-Baku Sister Cities Association, Inc.

Fort Worth Sister Cities International