The Ministry of Interior of the Slovak Republic, currently chairing meetings of the EU´s Interior Ministers, has recently held a workshop under the title: Enhancing Resilience of Critical Infrastructure in Bratislava. Apart from EU Member States representatives and members of the EU Commission, representatives of third countries such as Serbia or Norway, and of the institutions dealing with risk management and natural disaster forecasting, particularly floods, were invited.

The invited domestic guests included, among others, those from the Slovak Hydrometeorological Institute, Slovak Water Management Company, the management of the Slovak Fire Department and Comenius University in Bratislava. Foreign visitors came from the Emergency Management Agency in Georgia, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland; and Tomas Bata Univerzity in Zlin, the Czech Republic. Telegrafia as the manufacturer and supplier of the Slovak National Warning and Notification System /SEHIS/ took an active part in the workshop.

Our sales representative, Michal Rosinski, gave a presentation on some essential components creating an effective flood early warning system. Each block of presentations was followed by a short discussion where our international business managers spoke actively about Telegrafia´s most significant projects and answered a number of questions, pertaining to the implementation of warning systems based on electronic sirens, their control and effective notification of the persons in charge.

One of the outcomes of the workshop is a set of recommendations that will serve as a future platform in the field of critical infrastructure protection and effective information exchange in Europe during and beyond the Slovak 2016 Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

The Telegrafia company presented its early warning and notification system and 5 basic and most important elements of the well-functioning flood warning system.

1. Network of dam-monitoring sensors, capable of detecting imminent danger.
2. Fast and reliable communications infrastructure.
3. Network of modern, high-output electronic mass warning sirens.
4. Effective control centre for active information management.
5. Adequate response of the endangered population to emergency situations.

Telegrafia´s know-how and long-term experience in the building of warning and notification systems all around the world substantially contributed to the understanding of the issue and elaborating these recommendations.