Businesses asked to take part in major flood exercise
Businesses – large and small – in England and Wales are being invited to test their resilience to flooding in one of the biggest national emergency exercises ever to take place.
Exercise Watermark is being launched in response to the increasing threat of flooding in England and Wales due to climate change. It aims to bring together emergency services, businesses and local communities to trial responses to a range of scenarios that could occur during severe flooding from rivers, the sea, reservoirs, groundwater and surface water.
Companies including Vodafone, EDF Energy and the Bank of England have already signed up to test their business continuity arrangements as part of the exercise, which is being led by the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) along with the Welsh Assembly Government. Hospitals, the Ministry of Defence, Network Rail and the Flood Forecasting Centre are also taking part.
Organizers want more businesses and communities to get involved.
“Small businesses, schools, everybody is welcome to take part,” said a spokesperson for the Environment Agency, which is helping to deliver the Exercise Watermark.
Beginning with a pilot event in November 2010, Exercise Watermark will go live across England and Wales for a week in March 2011.
See Businesses asked to take part in major flood exercise.
For more information see Exercise Watermark.
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Tags: climate change, exercise, Exercise Watermark, flood, test
