SOFT LAUNCH OF
DELSA SATELLITE WAREHOUSE
IN THAILAND
A key aim for the AHA Centre – under the One ASEAN, One Response vision – is to increase the speed and scale of disaster response across the ASEAN region. Supporting and innovating current ASEAN disaster management processes forms a key element in such efforts, and significant attention has been afforded to increasing and expanding the region’s relief preparedness, with a focus to ASEAN’s stockpile of relief items, housed and coordinated through the Disaster Emergency Logistics System for ASEAN (DELSA) warehouse in Subang, Malaysia. Throughout the last two years, the AHA Centre has implemented plans to develop DELSA satellite warehouses in two other parts of the region, and in June 2019, the AHA Centre achieved its first satellite warehouse opening with the soft launch of a new facility in Chainat, Thailand.
The two DELSA satellite warehouses are located in Thailand and the Philippines, with both forming accessible, efficient and innovative options for the region to deliver much-needed relief items to communities affected by disaster anywhere in the region. They will operate in sync with the primary DELSA regional stockpile in Subang, Malaysia, balancing and coordinating supplies based on operational capacity and the needs of the surrounding region’s populations. The two satellite warehouses will be jointly managed between the host country’s National Disaster Management Organisation (NDMO) and the AHA Centre, and will utilise processes and procedures developed by the AHA Centre and NDMOs throughout the lead-up and development of the facilities.
The first of the DELSA Satellite Warehouses was launched in Chainat, Thailand on 23 June, 2019, with the launching ceremony forming part of the 34th ASEAN Summit in Bangkok, Thailand, attended by all ASEAN Leaders. Made possible through the support of the Japan-ASEAN Integration Fund (JAIF), Thailand’s warehouse will be co-managed by the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation of Thailand and the AHA Centre, and is located at the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Regional Centre (DPMRC) Region 16, Chainat. As part of the soft launch, ASEAN Leaders were invited on-stage to officiate the event, as part of the overall opening ceremony of the Summit.
With a full launching of both warehouses slated for 2019, this soft launch in Thailand forms the initial step of an exciting time for the ASEAN region’s efforts in disaster response. In a press statement released by the Thailand as Chair of ASEAN in 2019 during the 34th ASEAN Summit, “the Satellite Warehouse in Chainat Province will enable ASEAN, and particularly the AHA Centre in Indonesia, to more effectively pursue rapid mobilisation and distribution of relief items to disaster-affected ASEAN Member States in mainland Southeast Asia…… further strengthening ASEAN’s collective response to natural disasters under the “One ASEAN, One Response” across ASEAN”.
Written by : William Shea | Photo : AHA Centre
