“... and your own emergency supply?”

Considerations in a politically unstable time

rt. In November 2014, Toni Frisch conducted a safety exercise of the federal government, the cantons and cities on possible blackouts and flu epidemics “Sicherheitsverbund Übung 14”. The former head of the humanitarian aid of the Federation will recommend the Federal Council and the State Councillors that every household should store up an emergency supply. Almost a year ago it was the head of the Swiss Army, André Blattmann, also called to mind the need for a domestic emergency stock in view of the current crisis situation in Ukraine.

The team led by Toni Frisch took an important first step and demanded an emergency supply for everyone. But the problem of our electricity supply situation remains. Power supply is getting increasingly internationalized and thus more susceptible without while the aspect of the country’s secure supply is not sufficiently considered. Many vital institutions have been changed in recent decades and converted to electricity. Just think of warehousing, health care, water pumps, gas stations, transportation, etc. The novel “Blackout – Morgen ist es zu spät” by Marc Elsberg (ISBN 978-3-442-38029-9 2012) conceives of a possible scenario.
The global political escalation, which we observe in Ukraine, urges us as well to account for possible direct consequences for our lives.The warlike activities in a region with 15 Ukrainian and 12 Russian nuclear power plants might escalate rapidly. Within hours an international confrontation might be triggered possibly leading to acute warfare. The potential impact of such a scenario can range from the effects of pro-time supply shortages to a long-term nuclear pollution with all its dangerous long-term consequences. Many may remember the consequences of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, some of which are still tangible today.
Also the economic and fiscal political situation in the EU can quickly lead to unstable conditions in individual states. Social explosives have been accumulated abundantly in recent decades. Not only in the southern countries developed a massive impoverishment of wide strata of the population, even in the “winner countries” like Germany a broad class of “working poor” has formed whereas international banks are served with billions of interest payments.
Are you well-provided for? Are your relatives, your neighbours? Depending on the assumed scenario, the kind of possible emergency supply might vary. It may help you during difficult times. At the “Bundesamt für wirtschaftliche Landesversorgung, BWL”, (Federal Office for National Economic Supply) you can get some information about a short term 7 day emergency supply “Kluger Rat – Notvorrat, BWL” www.bwl.admin.ch or advice in case of a possible power failure (www.bwl.admin.ch/ dienstleistungen).
In addition to the current instructions of BWL, which have recently been updated and are also available per “social” media (see box), it is strongly recommended to refer to older information material. It involves a larger stock and also includes suggestions how to manage the emergency stock. We recommend, for example, the list of goods from the brochure “Haus­haltvorrat – Damit der Fall der Fälle nicht zur Falle wird” (Household reserves – For the worst-case scenario) by BWL from 1997, which is conceived for a fortnight. In this brochure vou will find advice for a sensible management of the stock, too.
We can only hope that the various conflicts will end peacefully and that some political decision-making circles might come to their senses. The situation calls upon us to make sufficient provisions.     •

cc. In early February 2015, the Federal Office for Civil Protection (FOCP) launched the system Alertswiss in collaboration with various partner organizations. Now everyone who is interested finds information on a website (alertswiss.ch), a smartphone app, Twitter (@alertswiss) and YouTube information about the precaution and the behaviour in disasters and emergencies in Switzerland. In the centre of the newly launched website is an individual emergency plan that every household can create for themselves. In it e.g. family meeting points can be set, important information can be deposited or a list with emergency supplies can be stored. In an emergency, it is essential that the relevant authorities and the population concerned will act as quickly and as correctly as possible, said Benno Bühlmann, Director of the Federal Office.