What is the Role of a Project Manager in Dubai during Floods?

 

1. Abstract

The purpose of this report is to summarize analyze and evaluate the job role of the Senior Response Officer at Disaster Management Department namely the National Emergency Crisis and Disaster Management Authority or NCEMA during the Dubai Floods of 2017.

 

It will also evaluate the employee performance and areas that would require improvement.

 

PART 1

2. Introduction

According to UNESCO, the frequency and magnitude of natural disasters has been increasing for the last 50 years. This is due to the severe climatic changes that not only UAE, but the whole world is facing. Other factors are also involved like an increase in population, industrialization, loss of natural resources which maintain environmental balance and growing number of urban areas. Thus with it, a systematic approach to the management of natural disaster rose.

The UN department, International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction pointed out the urbanization is the more prominent factor among all. In most cities large number of people are moving into urban areas with the scope of employment and better economic opportunity. This has led to the construction of buildings on unsafe lands. Proper planning and regulation is not being maintained, contributing to the vulnerability of the situation.

2.1 The Geology of UAE

Dubai is a triangular shaped landmass surrounded by the Gulf of Arabia and the Gulf of Oman. The UAE is mainly a desert climate, it is warm and sunny in winter and hot and humid in the summer season. Predominantly, UAE has three ecological area; coastal area, mountainous area and the desert area. The major portion is occupied by the desert. Salt marshes are also found in the eastern and the western part of UAE. The topography is a western plain which is relative low and merges with the Rub al-Khali desert and the mountainous regions.

2.2 NCEMA

The Middle East has a long record of seismic activity. The earthquakes of 2004, in Turkey, Iran and Pakistan and the Asian Tsunami, had major impact in the entire UAE. Currently NCEMA takes care of all the disaster activities in the entire UAE. The NCEMA was established in 2007 at Abu Dhabi. The main objective is to strengthen the natural disaster response mainly by forming plans and strategies to combat a natural disaster.

 

For the purpose of this case study, we shall take an example of an employee and evaluate how he performs the job roles and where improvement is needed.

Employee: Maqsood

Job Title: Senior Response Officer

Designation: Work Unit: Planning and Preparedness Department (Response Unit)

Position No: 8456

Responsible to: Senior Unit Manager

Project Evaluation: Dubai Floods 2017

 

3. Summary of Job Description

3.1 Primary Objective

The primary objective of Maqsood as a Senior Response Officer would be firstly to co-ordinate and manage the junior response officers and give them proper training on responding to emergency situations. He is also require to develop plans and strategies for effective training and assess the employee of his unit in terms of skill and capacity. Another major role would be supporting his whole team in case of emergency response.

 

3.2 Key Responsibilities

·         To develop strategies for strengthening the response unit and to identify the gaps that are prevalent in the system.

• ·         To provide emergency assistance to the victims of natural disaster.
• ·         To work closely with the senior manager to evaluate the accuracy of the data.
• ·         To guide the operations department in the terms of locations and trapped victims.
• ·         To determine the readiness of response departments for combating a natural disaster.
• ·         To ensure proper tracking for response activities. And store valuable information in the Data Protection System of the department.
• ·         To provide proper training on how to manage emergency calls. In some cases co-ordination with international agencies may be required for effective training purpose.
• ·         To conduct weekly meetings for technical guidance and ad hoc meetings for urgent needs and emergency cases.
• ·         To address any technical issue of the response team.

 

3.3 Key Skills Required

• ·         Good communication skill.
• ·         Good organizational skills.
• ·         Ability to handle stressful and life threatening situation.
• ·         Must be able to research on new techniques and improvements related to disaster management.
• ·         Must be quick in taking decisions, in response to emergency calls.
• ·         Must be able to understand the geological activity and cause of the natural disaster. He should also be well educated on the local and regional areas.
• ·         Ability to work with various types of people in the operations department (relief) and the local police (Dubai Police).

 

PART 2

4. Review of Tasks and Duties

4.1 Project Allotted

The project allotted to the employee was handling the response team during the Dubai Floods, 2017.

Heavy rainfall caused floods and road blockages in many parts of Dubai and around 581 accidents were occurred. The Dubai Police had received around 12, 537 emergency calls in the last 24 hours. The Al Wasl Road and the Karama area was worst affected. Construction sites and bridges has flooded and there were almost 3 mm of water at the less affected areas. The employee, Maqsood had to response to all the emergency calls coming from the civilians. The operations officers in the field would also be coordinating with him for rescue of the civilians. His role as a response officer would be to guide them to the exact location with real time data and give information on victims that might need help. He also required to guide two junior officers in attending to civilian calls.

4.2 Areas Requiring Improvement

The response unit received reports of cars and houses on major roads being under 3 mm of water. Traffic was extremely slow and due to non-visibility accidents were frequent. Emergency messages were given out to civilians to vacate their vehicle and had to move to higher grounds. In such a scenario the personnel had to identify the areas where response was needed. His coordination and management of two junior officers needed improvement. They had to be trained more in responding to emergency calls. Panic must be avoided among the officers at all cost.

4.3 Remedial Action

To remedy the solution as seen in the above situation, special action needs to be taken in training and development of the junior response officers. The junior officers most of the time were confused on how to deal with an emergency. It was evident that they lacked proper guidance and training. They needed to have Advanced Training Program on Humanitarian Action.

 

4.4 Employee Response

As per the assessment, the employee responded well to the evaluation. He organized weekly case meetings to discuss the response and the action that was required and the areas which needed improvement. The challenges were discussed for on-going activities and plans for activities to come. Sufficient training was given on the Early Warning System (EWS). This considerably increased the emergency management system. The junior officers also received a clarity on how to deal with such situations.

4.5 checklist for Managers Preliminary Inability Process

As per the case study, it is seen that there is lack of awareness in regards to response among the junior staffs. Hence all managers need to have a checklist to evaluate an employee based on how they guide the public. Firstly, he must be able to coordinate and collaborate the team members and other departments in various natural disaster activities and also in health camps and programs. Secondly he must be able to able to communicate with government officials and update them on the improvement required in regards to safety and technical issues. Lastly, actions taken on media response must be evaluated like sending text messages to all in case of emergency, flashing radio and TV news, social media channels and more.

4.6 Outcomes to be achieved

·         To increase team efficiency and skill.

·         To train more volunteers and motivate the public to participate in volunteering events.

·         To liaise with international organizations like the UN, ReliefWeb and more for technical and training support.

·         Bring in more advanced technology for the management of natural disasters like the EWS and others.

·         To provide an overall operational support to various department.

4.7  Assessment against Duties

The employee however has shown potential improvement in terms of coordinating and training their subordinates. The employee also has handled various units like the Ambulance Service Center, the Dubai Police, the rescue department and various other volunteers and effectively coordinated among them to create efficiency in the workflow. The resources at hand were also utilized properly to handle such a crisis and the public were sufficiently informed.

5. Conclusion

As from the above assessment it can be said that the employee needs more improvement in coordination activities within the team and with other department for an effective response management at times of natural disasters. Guidelines, pamphlets, training workshops, awareness workshops must be held at regular intervals to foster education on natural disasters.

 

6. Recommendations

Apart from the above mentioned remedial strategies, no further action is required.

 

 

7. Bibliography

Abdalla, J., & Al Homoud, A. (2004). “Seismic hazard assessment of the UAE and its surroundings.” Earthquake Engineering, 8, 817-837. doi:10.1142/S1363246904001778

Shouk, Al, A. (2017) “Heavy rain, floods lead to 581 accidents in Dubai”, Gulf News [Online]

Shouk, Al, A. (2019) “Dubai Police lecture on national disaster breaks world record”, Gulf News [Online]

Al-Amri, A. (2005). “Seismic source zones of the Arabian Peninsula and adjacent countries”, Gulf Seismic Forum. UAE University, Al-Ain, UAE.

Ncema.gov.ae [Online]

Malek, C. (2017), “Climate change and rising seas could spell disaster for UAE’s coastal regions”, The National. [Online]

Shabaan, A. (2018), “UAE weather: Fresh warning as rain drenches several areas”, Khaleej Times. [Online]

Davies, R. (2018), “Oman and UAE Floods: Deadly Floods hit after torrential rain”, Flood List/Asia News [Online]