“Vigilant guard” for citizens and the environment, is the new “weapon” of constant surveillance and the possibility of immediate activation of the Civil Protection mechanism when needed, which was put into operation for the coming period of the fire season by the mayor of Vari-Voula-Vouliagmeni, Gregory Kostantelos, at a special event at the town hall of the city, in the presence of the competent ministers, representatives of the Armed Forces, the Fire Department, the Police, etc.
This is a pioneering system for the country, a 24-hour aerial surveillance system of the urban, suburban and forest green of the city, using drones, for early warning and (through the Operations Centre) response to fires and other climate crisis related situations. The system is expected to be adopted by other municipalities and its signal will be sent to the National Coordination Centre for Crisis Management.
In particular, during the presentation the mayor Gr. Kontantellos pointed out that we are now in the heart of the climate crisis and the target in its ever worsening manifestation is reversal. “Otherwise mega-phenomena will occur which will require large, high-cost systems to deal with.” On the occasion of the fire that broke out on June 4 in the area, resulting in the loss of natural capital, due to untimely notification, the mayor noted “we rushed and covered the weakness of the Civil Protection mechanism by accelerating our steps so that in the current period and not in the next as we had discussed to install this “the first in the country modern system with aerial surveillance 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, in real time, with drone the which have digital and thermal cameras and loudspeakers so that our contact is interactive with those who should not be on the spot.”
The importance of prevention was also focused on by Deputy Minister G. Amyras noting that the national policy towards this sector has changed. “On the instructions of Prime Minister Mitsotakis, a pioneering programme is being implemented by the Ministries of Environment and Civil Protection with funding of €50 million from the Recovery Fund and €22 million from the regular budget. “Across Greece, dozens of logging crews are removing fuel in more than 100 critical forest ecosystems, clearing about 100,000 acres of forest, spread over 18 million acres. We open and maintain forest roads with a total length of 12,000 km and 2,200 km of firebreaks. Amyras added that the program has been included in the program and Ymittos with 6 million. EUR for the cleaning of an area of 2,200 hectares and the opening of 90 km of the river. forest roads, as well as other areas.
