One of the major challenges with an impending natural disaster like a flood or a cyclone is warning the people about it, particularly in densely populated areas, but the government in Bangladesh has come up with a plan.
Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated areas in the world and is an area that is particularly at risk of floods, earthquakes and storms, but according to a government official, thousands upon thousands of people will now receive a warning message on their mobiles alerting them about it.
Ok so it might not fully prevent the damage or loss of life that such a disaster might cause but it will certainly allow people to be more prepared and reduce the numbers of people affected as well as the scale of the damage.
Two mobile phone operators are involved and have signed an agreement with the government to issue early warning alerts to their subscribers and these operators are Grameenphone and Teletalk.
Obviously it makes sense to target the most vulnerable areas first, namely the Shirajganj district where floods are common and Cox’s Bazar on the coast which is prone to cyclones so those living in these susceptible areas can take preventative action should disaster strike.
“This new initiative will mean that people will get an alert on their phones warning them that they are likely to face flooding or a cyclone,” Syed Ashraf, communications specialist for the country’s Disaster Management Bureau, told Reuters.
“So they will then be able to take action like evacuate their homes and seek shelter in assigned places.”
The alert messages are not going to be ordinary text messages though, which could end up sitting unread in the inbox until the user decides to read it, instead the message will flash on the screen automatically there is no chance of it being missed.
It makes sense to use technology like mobile phones as this is likely to be far more effective than Bangladesh’s current system.
At the moment there is an early warning system in place which is operated by the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society and involves 42,000 volunteers cycling around shouting out on megaphones to people to evacuate their homes.
This method is time consuming and inevitably some areas will be missed with many people left completely unaware that they or their homes are in danger.
The new system will run alongside the existing system and will be piloted over the next six months with the intention of rolling it out to the rest of the country at a later date.
I can’t help but wonder if they’ll all manage to get a signal!
