'Fresh off the press': in early November, the major multi-year public information campaign 'Think Ahead' was launched to raise awareness among Dutch society of the need to prepare for the consequences of large-scale outages of daily utilities, such as power. The 'Prepare for an emergency' campaign, with 8.5 million information leaflets and radio and TV spots, among other things, should get people moving. Citizens really need to start putting together their emergency kits, making an emergency plan for their household and talking to each other about it and helping each other. The campaign was developed and implemented in close cooperation with other governments, civil society organizations and businesses.
72 hours
"Our message to society is very clear," begins Marco Zannoni, "In times of crisis, don't wait for the government to come and help you, because in the potential crisis scenarios we may face, relief and crisis management professionals are 'overcharged'. We simply cannot help everyone at the same time and certainly not in a short period of time. This is why it is important for citizens and businesses to take measures to manage at least 72 hours at home by themselves, in situations where nothing works the way we are used to. Public order and security services can then concentrate on helping and supporting the most vulnerable people in society, with support from a "resilience network" of citizen rescuers around local emergency support centers. Strengthening societal resilience to crises is a collective societal task. Everyone has to participate."
"Our message to society is very clear" - Marco Zannoni
Three scenarios
Zannoni explains the three types of crises on which the program strengthening social resilience focuses. "It involves three main scenarios that lead to major and long-term social disruption. First, long-term power outages in a large area or nationwide; second, a large-scale Internet outage with massive failure of digital services, such as the movement of money; and third, a 'war situation'.
The latter scenario seemed very unlikely in Europe since the end of the Cold War in 1989, But since the war in Ukraine and the growing threat from Russia on the eastern flank of the NATO alliance, it is again a real danger. If the war really escalates and NATO and Russia come face to face, we're going to feel it in the Netherlands as well. Because our country is an important transit country for troops and military equipment. That makes us vulnerable to attacks, physical or hybrid, on our vital infrastructure. Like the ports, rail lines and main roads."
Energy and Internet
But preparation for armed geopolitical conflict should not be the main focus, Marco Zannoni stressed. "We emphatically take an 'all-hazard approach,' because there are multiple potential causes for societal disruption. Think extreme weather, a cyber crisis or the increasing instability of the power grid. Therefore, in the resilience approach, we assume the effects: primarily 72 hours of power outages or loss of Internet and digital services."
Such a situation will hit society tremendously hard because of today's society's heavy dependence on those vital services. Without electricity, nothing works the way we are used to: heating, telecommunications, ICT services, ATMs and digital currency transactions. "Therefore, it is important that government, citizens and business collectively take measures to get through such a period. Companies and social institutions must make their organizations crisis-proof and think about how they can contribute to keeping vital social processes running, such as healthcare, emergency services, drinking water and food supply."
Emergency support
Zannoni stresses that the NCTV is not itself responsible for implementing resilience projects. "We act as a coordinator and booster. We started the national information campaign to raise awareness and beyond that we are mainly coordinating and initiating. A lot is already happening nationally, in security regions and also in companies. We want to connect such initiatives as much as possible, so that they reinforce each other."
According to Zannoni, all security regions have now launched their own resilience programs to flesh out the envisioned national resilience network with emergency support points. The regions were called upon to do this through the so-called "What Letter" from the central government of December 2024. Now the outlines from that letter must be 'operationalized' at the regional and local levels. The 'how' of the measures, setting up a resilience network and strengthening vital processes and sectors, is left to the business sectors, security regions and municipalities. To gain experience, two pilot projects with exercises will be organized in the short term in all 25 security regions around the functioning of emergency support points.
Zannoni: "I hope that resilience will also be an important theme during the eRIC trade fair in 2026. All parties that have a role in crisis preparation and execution in the acute phase will be represented there. Also companies that provide materials and services that can contribute to strengthening resilience. Because there are issues of capacity, preparedness, communication, emergency power supplies, logistics, care support and more. So there's no better place to connect government, business and volunteer organizations in the emergency response community around this important topic than a trade show where all of those parties are already present."
Marco Zannoni will give a talk at eRIC on Wednesday, April 22 at 11:15 a.m.
