Disaster Assistance Response Team

The Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) is a rapidly deployable team of 200 Canadian Forces personnel to provide assistance to disaster-affected regions for up to 40 days.

DART was created by the Canadian government in Autumn of 1996 in response to an inadequate response to the 1994 Rwandan genocide, when Canada's aid arrived after the peak of a cholera epidemic. The government determined that it would be of utmost importance in many disasters to be able to rapidly deploy a group of people until long-term aid arrived. DART is currently commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Michael R. Voith.

DART has an annual budget of CAD$500,000, though during specific incidents, Parliament can choose to temporarily allocate millions of dollars to DART to fund their response effort. For example, Operation: Torrent, the aid mission to Turkey in the wake of the 1999 earthquake which left 17,000 people dead, saw CAD$15 million used by DART in the response.

Goals
Dart has 4 goals:


 * 1) Provide basic medical care
 * DART has a medical platoon of 40 staff who can serve up to 250 outpatients and 10 inpatients per day. Although the medical station will not perform surgery, it treats minor injuries and attempts to prevent the spread of disease.
 * This station has a lab and a pharmacy.
 * 1) Produce safe drinking water
 * 2) Repair basic infrastructure
 * The engineering platoon of 37 people can fix roads and bridges, build refugee camps, and repair electrical and water supply systems.
 * 1) Make communication easier

Missions
The Canadian government decides whether or not to send DART after a request from a country or the United Nations. Typically, upon a request from the government of the affected country, The Canadian government will dispatch its three people Strategic Support Team (SST). The SST members are from the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT), the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and the Department of National Defence (DND). For all DART missions DFAIT is the lead department representing the Government of Canada. The SST will assess the situation and submit its recommendations back to the Government of Canada who will deem if the DART can or cannot be of assistance. If the Government of Canada agrees to provide assistance it will dispatch an additional group of 9 who will make preparations to receive the remainder of the team into the affected area.

Operation CENTRAL (Honduras)
In October 1998, a category-5 hurricane (Hurricane Mitch) over a period of three days in Central America. As a result, 6,000 people died and over a million were missing or homeless.

DART situated themselves in the middle of Rio Aguan Valley, in north-central Honduras. By virtue of the fact that there were many isolated communities that were connected only by then-broken roads and bridges, DART was given 4 CH-146 helicopters.

In mid-December 1998, DART delivered 250,000 pounds of food, water and medical supplies throughout the valley. Additionally, about 15,000 people were provided with water. Working with the medical personnel in Honduras, DART treated about 7,500 patients for ailments such as respiratory infections, conjunctivitis, skin infections, diarrhea, parasitic infections, and intestinal infections.

Operation TORRENT (Turkey)
DART responded to a 7.4-magnitude earthquake that hit north-western Turkey on August 17, 1999. DART was deployed on the following day, and set up a camp in Serdivan, a suburb of Adapazarı, which had 180,000 people. During this mission, DART personnel assisted in cleaning up a school, restored electricity, and designed and constructed a tented camp which could hold 2,500 people. This camp also had washroom and shower facilities. DART treated 5,000 patients, and produced 2.5 million litres of bulk water.

Operation STRUCTURE (Sri Lanka)
DART responded to the Indian Ocean earthquake/tsunami that occurred on December 26 2004. The reconnaissance crew left for Colombo, Sri Lanka on December 30 2004. A commercial plane carried a reconnaissance crew with representatives from Foreign Affairs Canada (3), Canadian International Development Agency (2), Public Health Agency (1), and DART itself (6).

Prime Minister Paul Martin announced his plans to send DART into the region on January 2 2005. Four days later, a plane carrying 150 DART members departed for Ampara, Sri Lanka. On 8 January 2005, 50 more members arrived. Sri Lanka suffered tremendously as a result of the 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake, and the Canadian government stated that their relief efforts were to be concentrated there. They set up their main camp in a former sugar factory.

Ampara is cited as being one of the most affected by the tsunami. The Canadian government estimates that 105,560 out of the 600,000 people living there have been forced to seek temporary shelter. An estimated 10,400 deaths occurred as a result of the earthquake.

The DART team brought four water purification units, which can provide up to 200,000 litres of clean water per day. It also provided primary medical care, some special engineering capabilities, and communication between DART, Sri Lanka, and other relief organizations.

The mission is expected to last 6 weeks. Their first mission was to supply hospitals with potable water, which they hope to achieve by using their water purification units, which can purify 150,000 to 200,000 litres per day.

Thus far, DART has treated 5,800 patients, produced more than 2.5 million litres of purified water; Additionally, DART has helped repair schools, clear rubble, build temporary shelters and repair fishing boats and water mains in Sri Lanka.

The lack of an immediate response by what was supposed to be a rapid-response unit arose significant criticism. Although the DART team was ready to leave within 24 hours of when the disaster struck, the government took 2 days to announce that the team would be dispatched, and it took nearly 2 weeks for DART to actually leave for Sri Lanka, due to a lack of available air transport. These delays notwithstanding, the DART chief, Michael Voith, commended DART's work, saying "What I can tell you after this mission is the organization of the DART that we have right now ... is a sound organization, it brings an incredible capability to a disaster area." John Watson of CARE Canada, responded by calling the operation an "amateur" response. Voith dismissed these criticisms, saying that the team filled a "critical void." Also, supporters of DART have noted that the initial response (ie. digging people out of collapsed buildings, providing surgury/immediate serious trauma care for the injured, etc.) is not the responsiblilty of DART. This is apprant from the fact they do not have trauma surgons, SAR assets, firefighters or other professionals who would be critical during the very first days after a disaster. Rather, the job of DART is to mitigate the impacts of the lack of critical infrastruction after a disaster.

Operation PLATEAU (Pakistan)
On October 14, 2005, it was announced that DART would be deployed as part of the Canadian response to the 7.6 earthquake in Pakistan. The team is set to deploy in the region of Muzaffarabad.

Operation STRUCTURE

 * Backgrounder: Canadian Forces Disaster Assistance Response Team. 10 Jan. 2005. Department of National Defence and Canadian Forces. 16 Jan. 2005
 * "CTV News." CTV News. CTV. 6 Jan. 2005. 16 Jan. 2005
 * "DART departs for Sri Lankan mission." CBC News. CBC, Trenton, Ontario. 7 Jan. 2005. 16 Jan. 2005
 * "First DART jet arrives in Sri Lanka with supplies." CTV News. CTV. 9 Jan. 2005. 16 Jan. 2005
 * "DART chief hails Sri Lanka mission." The Toronto Star.  9 Feb. 2005.