PUNTA CANA, LA ALTAGRACIA PROVINCE.- A group of 30 officials from Punta Cana Airport (PUJ) and the National System for Prevention, Mitigation and Response participated in the third edition of the workshop “Airports Ready for Disasters” (GARD), organized by the DHL Group, in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), in collaboration with the World Food Programme (WFP).
The GARD Programme is a global public-private partnership designed to support airports in planning their role as logistics hubs in the event of disasters such as floods, earthquakes, hurricanes and landslides, as well as integrating their role into national emergency plans.
The five-day training course, aimed at airport officials and disaster management authorities, seeks to enhance PUJ's capacity to receive humanitarian aid in the event of large-scale emergencies and disasters. During the training, participants, with the assistance of five international airport specialists from DHL, will assess the airport's current disaster response capabilities and develop a corresponding disaster plan.
During the opening ceremony, Gilberto Castro, director of the Go Help team for the Americas at DHL, recalled that the Dominican Republic is the pioneering country of the GARD program globally, contributing to the design of the training methodology and the training process.
In 2014, UNDP and DHL selected the Dominican Republic to train technicians at the Las Américas José Francisco Peña Gómez International Airport (SDQ), supporting its disaster preparedness.
In 2015, it was replicated at the Cibao airport (STI), expanding the number of trained technicians and strengthening the National Prevention, Mitigation and Response System to extend the methodology to other airports.
UNDP Resident Representative Inka Mattila stated that “investment in risk reduction, and in particular in response time efficiency, will allow us to build more resilient societies,” and highlighted the importance of coordinated work between the private sector and public entities.
Meanwhile, Gabriela Alvarado, WFP representative, added that “it is crucial to prepare airports as logistics hubs in case of emergencies caused by climate shocks, by assessing their capacity to manage the flow of humanitarian aid and personnel in disaster response situations.”.
Later, the Deputy Minister of the Presidency, José Ramón Holguín, referred to the initiatives the Dominican Republic has been implementing for disaster risk management, such as the Government Center and the early warning system. He stated that “by protecting lives, we protect the dreams of Dominican families.”.
For his part, Giovanni Rainieri, director of operations at PUJ, referred to the importance of this activity in making the service of his entity more efficient in emergency situations and that it adds to the efforts that the airport management has been making since 1998, when it was severely affected by Hurricane Georges.
Established in 2009, GARD aims to address the growing demand for airport preparedness and disaster response capabilities at transportation hubs. The program, launched in over 60 airports across 29 countries, includes staff training on managing the flow of goods and people during disasters, assisting local authorities in relief operations, and assessing the current state of affected airports. The public-private partnership GARD is celebrating its fifteenth year of helping airports build preparedness capabilities.
