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SMS alerts for natural calamities

Md Hasan
Sorry debates follow every natural calamity over how early warning could have reduced the intensity of a damage caused. Sometimes, it is a matter of irony that weather forecasts a sunny warm day, while in reality it rains cats and dogs.
This is the reason why no one takes weather forecasts seriously, and therefore, the damage exceeds estimation.
Natural disasters are common to this country of 150 million, mainly because of its geographical location.
A total of 6,31,396 people died from 15 cyclones and 23 Hoods that hit the country since 1970, according to the Disaster Management Bureau (DMB). The figure shows nature compromises with nothing and appears with no prior notice.
However, advanced warnings could reduce the extent of any damage, as people could prepare themselves and take shelter.
The radio and television are the basic means to caution people, but when there is no electricity, warning signals reach out to fewer people.
The Ministry of Food And Disaster Management (MOFDM) has taken an initiative to disseminate early warning signals for the people of disaster prone areas through cell phones, using cell broadcasts.
The former Chief Advisor's Office organised four workshops on e-governance for the secretaries of all government ministries in May-June 2008, aiming to formulate a strategy to extend any service under the citizen charter (array of services to be received by citizens from their respective offices) to people's doorsteps, quickly and easily, by using information and communication technology.
These workshops primarily identified 53 services -- Quick Win Services - to be implemented by December 2009. The Early Warning Dissemination through Cell Broadcast is such a project of the MOFDM. under the national e-governance, Quick Win Roadmap.
The government requested all the cell phone operators in August 2008 to assist them in iinplement-
ing the project by providing technological support and bearing the cost under their CSR (corporate social responsibility).
However, even after eight months, no consensus was reached among the operators because of technical inabilities and unwillingness to bear the cost.
The project later gained momentum after a push from the Prime Minister's Office (PMO). The MOFDM, in a meeting with the cell phone operators in April, informed that it is to revive the project and the pilot operation will initially start in the cyclone-prone areas of Cox's Bazar and the flood-prone areas of Sirajganj. It requested Grameenphone to be a partner by providing technological support u nder its CSR.
Initially, a pilot project will run till December 2009. Even though, the ministry sought support from all the operators, Grameenphone and TeleTalk were the only two to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the government.
By using its own mobile phone networks, Grameenphone and the state run TeleTalk are going to launch an early warning service to the natural disaster prone areas. Under the programme' directed by the Disaster Management Bureau (DMB), people would be informed about natural disasters through SMS cell broadcast services.
Experts said even though it is a noble idea, language could prove to be a bar to its effectiveness.
"This is definitely a good initiative. But the message should be delivered in a language that recipients can easily understand," said Ainun Nishat, country representative of International Union for Conservation of Nature-Bangladesh.
However operators are expecting that the Early Warning Dissemination through Cell Broadcast could be extended to include an IVR (interactive voice response) generated voice-based warning, so that recipients can listen to the instructions, just like they hear music on their mobiles.
Farhaduddin, director general of DMB, said. "Our goal is to save lives and manage calamity risks by disseminating warnings in a short notice."
Technically, the service is similar to providing a SMS, or voice through base station controllers (BSC). Like other value added services, early warnings would reach people automatically.
"The early warning service has a tremendous possibility to save lives, if it can successfully be implemented. Through digital technology, it would be a fast, effective and economical means to disseminating critical information to people of the coastal areas. It would also represent a new dimension to private-public initiatives that can take social service benefits to the mass," said Rathan Ahmed Shamsi, chief corporate affairs officer of Grameenphone.
hasan@thedailystar. net