Municipalities

The foundation of society's crisis preparedness is the municipalities. The better they are at managing a crisis, the better the whole society will be at coping with crises.
Published

Municipalities run many functions that also need to work during crises: care for the elderly, water supply, district heating, emergency services and schools, for example. To cope with this, municipalities need to prepare and practise, for example, how to manage important activities in the event of a major power cut or how to evacuate schools in the event of a release of hazardous chemicals.

Crisis management committees

In the event of an extraordinary event, the activities of the municipal councils can be taken over by a crisis management committee. The committee also takes decisions related to the extraordinary event. The municipal council decides when the activities of the crisis management board should cease.

All municipalities are required to have a crisis management board. Each individual municipality decides what powers the crisis management board should have. The purpose of the committee is to enable rapid political decisions in the event of an extraordinary event.

The municipality co-ordinates

Many people within the municipality are important for crisis preparedness: authorities, companies, voluntary organisations, faith communities and associations. One of the municipality's tasks is to build networks so that there is effective co-operation between those involved when a crisis occurs.

Risk and vulnerability analyses

Municipalities are required to have a plan for dealing with extraordinary events. The plan must be based on risk and vulnerability analyses of all activities that must also function in a crisis. This means that all municipalities must plan and practise how to deal with, for example, major power cuts, IT breakdowns and floods. In addition, elected representatives and employees must be trained and exercised.

The emergency services

The emergency services are part of the municipality. They are responsible for dealing with accidents and for preventing and limiting damage to people, property and the environment.

Security points

Some municipalities may set up security points in case of a serious incident. There, the public can get support in different ways. Read more about safety centres here.

Water supply

Municipalities are responsible for water supply in urban areas, either directly or through their own companies. They operate waterworks, wastewater treatment plants and manage pipelines.

Support for victims of serious incidents

Many municipalities have psychological and social care teams, POSOM. They can be called in by, for example, an emergency manager in the municipality.

Sources of this page: the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (SKR) and the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB).