The Macao Sport Development Board has been continuously expanding the scope of the “Public Sports Facilities Network” since its inception in 2006, in order to provide local residents with more space in which to practice sports. The Macao Sport Development Board also attaches great importance to the safety of its sports facilities and so, with the objective of ensuring user safety and so as to carry out inspections and tests of the facilities prior to the commencement of large-scale events, it followed-up of last year’s series of training initiatives for its staff on venue safety operations with tests and drills this year aiming to enhance their emergency response capability. The tests and drills held this year included power outage rehearsals and fire drills carried out jointly by the venue staff and various system maintenance service companies. 

Power outage rehearsals and fire drill simulation exercises were held between May and October of this year at the Football and Athletics Field of the University of Science and Technology of Macao, the Carmo Swimming Pools, the Sports Training Centre, the Bowling Centre, the Tennis Academy, the Nam Van Lake Nautical Centre, the Vitoria Sports Centre, the Tap Seac Multi-sport Pavilion, the Olympic Sports Centre (Olympic Swimming pool / Stadium / Multi-Purpose Zone / Badminton Zone / Hockey Field), the Don Bosco College Sports Centre, the Macao East Asian Games Dome, the International Shooting Range and the Tamagnini Barbosa Sports Centre.  

The above tests and drills not only effectively enhanced the venue staff’s capacity to adapt to power outages and improved their knowledge of the escape routes, they also helped test the operation of the hardware and other related systems used in emergency situations in the abovementioned venues for emergency situations as well as the flow of the escape routes. The Macao Sport Development Board then carried out repairs and adjustments to related systems and escape routes based on the results obtained from the tests in order to ensure their normal operation in emergency situations. This achieved the purposes of protecting public safety and improving the conditions of the sports venues and facilities available to local residents.