April 12th was an unfortunate day in the history of South Asian countries. It was this day when a massive earthquake hit the mountainous kingdom of Nepal and took several lives and devastated lots of properties. Similarly, the 9/11 attacks of America (and Mumbai, India) is still fresh in our memories. While not much can be done to avert such deadly disasters, one can certainly be organized to carry out suitable aid.
Be it floods, terrorist attacks or other detrimental acts of nature, it is essential to encompass steady and reliable communication in affected areas.
The Role of Bulk SMS in Affected Areas
While most of the mobile networks get affected in disaster-prone regions, the need of a concrete system for communication is indispensable. In such cases, bulk SMS services play a vital role in communication. In these troubled times when people cannot receive calls or make calls due to interrupted mobile (or telecom) functions, specialized servers providing bulk SMS or even voice options is favorable. Moreover, the following are some real-life scenarios for applying Bulk SMS in disaster management:
- Pune Municipal Corporation, India - On 10th June 2015, the Pune Municipal Corporation introduced Bulk SMS services for sending out relief-related messages and assistance information through a toll-free number. 31 civic schools are covered, and 25 personnel shall be deployed immediately in inflicted areas through this service.
- Indian Disaster Management Act - In December 2005, the Indian Government declared usage of Bulk SMS services as and when required in calamity-prone regions. All security and relief operational staff is appealed to standby for diverse circumstances. The NDMA, DDMA and SDMA have consented to this noble cause.
Other Disaster Management Techniques
Mass notifications to the public are issued in Government collaboration with concerned organizations providing bulk SMS services such as Aadishesh. Furthermore, there are several assistance methods by the following:
- Call center solutions in times of need
- Video conferencing solutions
- Usage of bulk SMS for procuring medicines
- Intimating affected people by standard operations
- Mass notifications via text, voice SMS and email to the public
To put it briefly, the scope of using Short Messaging Service for disaster management usage is quite helpful. Several lives can be saved, and the number of casualties can be diminished by this impeccable service!
There are the sources for alerts, seismometers being one, but most involve people at some point and therefore organizations, processing and communications. See www.brighttalk.com/r/Fr6. Relief organizations do not provide mitigation, mostly that is governments. Using radio, TV and cellphones, much can be done, but the best strategy I can advocate is to develop solutions applicable worldwide that are quite economical and therefore attractive to the public and consumer electronics manufacturers. This can be done with radio and TV based on an improved Emergency Alert System. See www.pattcom.com/eas for more. The Emergency Management of India has received a proposal for Earthquake Early Warning for the Himalayas and for Cyclone inundation maps broadcast. However they do not appear to be interested in moving forward. SMS is a method, but it is unsuitable for earthquakes (tens of millions of alerts in a second not possible), and lacks things like maps and broad integration with improved Emergency Management tools like CAP and EDXL. It is good for private notification companies, many of whom receive alerts from IPAWS in the US.
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