COMMUNICATIONs & DISASTER MANAGEMENT: The Missing Link

All

types of disasters, natural or  otherwise, leave behind a

trail of death and destruction. During such calamities, every

minute counts and instantaneous communication is key to quick

commencement of relief operations especially evacuation of

people from the affected areas. It is evident that the wireline

network (telecom and power) bears the maximum brunt during such

disasters. Communication assumes greater importance, especially

during cyclone, earthquake, and flood where predictability,

forecasting, and early warning is key to the whole disaster

preparedness.

The super cyclone that hit

Orissa on 29 October 1999 resulting in huge loss of lives and

property exposed the chink in the country''''s communication

armour. Telegraph poles were uprooted and microwave towers

destroyed. Rail, road, and air traffic were disrupted for 36

hours after the cyclone. The port city of Paradeep was totally

cut off, flooding areas up to 15 kilometres inland. All

communication links failed giving a blow to immediate

commencement of the relief operation. It would be pertinent to

note that United Nations has declared 1990-2000 as the

International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction.

Madhuri Das,

communications officer, CARE India, informs that there was only

one phone working in the whole state in the government office in

Bhubaneshwar. Incidentally CARE India is the convenor of the

National GoI-NGO Committee on Emergency Preparedness and

Response. She says, "although newspapers were able to come

up with the stories about the cyclone, we were not able to

establish contact for about 48 hours". CARE India bought

two phones from Iridium and despatched them to Orissa. But two

were inadequate, so a need was felt for cell phones. These were

given to the field workers who in turn coordinated with the

headquarters to provide the supplies to the marooned people. The

e-mail contact was also established within a week. Red Cross

India on the other hand managed to establish contact with their

team members after 72 hours through a satellite phone present

with them.

According to Vipul

Nautiyal, the Pioneer reporter, "there were only two phones

that were working in Bhubaneshwar. We used to file reports over

phone, but finally managed to hire a generator and got the fax

machine working".

National Informatics

Centre (NIC) under Ministry of Information Technology

established videoconferencing facility between Krishi Bhavan in

New Delhi and the Secretariat, Government of Orissa at

Bhubaneshwar. The relief operations were monitored, reviewed,

and coordinated with the State Government officials on a regular

basis. Delay in

Communication Takes Its Toll

The

most startling revelation was made by NM Prusty, director, CARE

India''''s Rehabilitation division while narrating the arduous

procedure for getting across the relief supplies to the affected

people. This cumbersome procedure went like this–CARE India

gets food supplies from the US government, and as a protocol,

the government makes available the relief material on the

specific request. CARE India asked for written permission from

the Orissa government for sending supplies. Basant Mohanty,

state director, CARE India obtained the letter. The Delhi office

was informed via telephone about the permission. But CARE India

needed a written permission. The fax was not working as there

was no power. Finally, the power was restored and a fax was

sent. CARE India in return had to convey to the Orissa

government''''s written permission to the US government in

Washington. The US office gave a go-ahead. CARE Delhi got into

the act and started to dispatch the first relief. The precious

time lost in the completion of the entire formality on

account of delayed communication can well be estimated.

Prusty talks about CARE

India''''s plan to set up a VSAT network which would link all its

seven state office and four port offices. Leading networking

vendor Cisco has pledged to fund the entire project. The network

is expected to be set up by the end of the current year.

Maharashtra:

Role Model

Maharashtra

is probably the only state which believes that prevention is

better than cure. The state already has drawn up an elaborate

disaster management system known as Maharashtra Emergency

Earthquake Rehabilitation Programme (MEERP). The World Bank,

UNDP, and Department for International Development, UK, (DID)

are assisting the government in chalking out a comprehensive

multi-hazard disaster management plan. This programme lays

thrust on disaster management response, disaster awareness, and

education. It has a state plan as the core and all the district

plans of Maharashtra forming the superstructure. These disaster

management plans to identify administrative and technical

measures essential to disaster preparedness, response action,

and mitigation efforts.

The state has already set

up an Emergency Operations Centre in Mantralaya, the state

secretariat. It has also set up district control rooms in all

the districts, a communication network comprising wireless (VHF)

and satellite (VSAT) networks for the entire state, a

computerized Disaster Management Information System through the

Geographic Information System (GIS) applications, community

disaster preparedness programmes and training. The entire

project cost is about Rs 25 crore which is being reimbursed by

the World Bank. This centre and divisional

and district control rooms in all the divisions and districts of

the state serve as a nodal facility for directing all the

operations in a disaster emergency situation. The government has

also set up a GIS-based Disaster Management Information System (DMIS)

aimed at the preparation of a comprehensive information base at

the Taluka level, which would contain all the spatial and

non-spatial data. It involves digitization of these data, and

the digitized mapping of all the talukas. The DMIS will help the

district administration for the risk analysis and vulnerability

assessment, besides organizing response operations.

Prof. Vinod Sharma of the

National Centre for Disaster Management (under ministry of

agriculture; NCDM) says "Maharashtra is the only state in

India today which has a world-class disaster management strategy

in place followed closely by Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat. The

rest is nowhere near to them." Incidentally, Sharma is also

the consultant to the Government of Andhra Pradesh for preparing

a disaster management plan. He also informed that a blue print

has been prepared by NCDM, which calls for a complete revamping

of the control room infrastructure in the country. It should be

noted that Andhra Pradesh government had immediately supplied

the state of Orissa with 10 Hertz, Armstrong, and Marconi (HAM)

radio operators, which proved very helpful.

The

Initiatives: Is It Enough?

National

Telecom Policy 1999: All

the policy says is "International co-operation in the use

of terrestrial and satellite telecommunications technologies in

the prediction, monitoring, and early warning of disasters,

especially in the early dissemination of information would be

encouraged. Financial commitment to disaster management

telephony and the development of appropriate regulatory

framework for unhindered use of trans-boundary

telecommunications would be put in place." Just a cursory

mention, and that too without any time frame for the

implementation speaks about the seriousness of the government.

Ram Vilas Paswan,

communication minister, announced some sops for the affected

people in the form of waiving bills up to Rs 1,000 besides

offering free telephone connection. In addition to this, the

minister informed that the ministry has decided to prepare and

execute an action plan for the coastal area of the eastern

state. The proposal is aimed at installing Wireless in Local

Loop (WILL) facility and connectivity to all exchanges by

reliable transmission system to the district headquarters to

meet any emergency situation. Tampere Convention on the

Provision of Telecommunication Resources for Disaster Mitigation

and Relief Operations (18 June 1998): The

convention provides the framework for the use of telecom in

international humanitarian assistance, removes regulatory

barriers, and protects providers of telecom assistance while

safeguarding the interests of the host country. The ITU 1998

Minneapolis Plenipotentiary Conference unanimously adopted

Resolution COM/3 on telecom in the service of humanitarian

assistance and urged member states to work towards the earliest

possible ratification, acceptance, approval or final signature

of the Convention and to take all practical steps for the

application of the convention. The United Nations Secretary

General is its depository. The United Nations Emergency Relief

Co-ordinator under the convention, is working closely with

International Telecommunication Union. As of now, the convention

has not come into force. India is one of the 47 signatories to

the convention having signed it on 29 November 1999.

The International

Conference on Disaster Management: Cooperative Networking in

South Asia: Experts from different

fields deliberated at the conference held in New Delhi from

28-30 November 1999. Organized by IGNOU, the conference called

for utilizing the modern communication technology for warning

systems, for information, and for relief operations and

mobilization of mass media for information and for relief

operations.

Communication

During Disaster: GMPCS Holds the Key

When

virtually all the communication links failed during the Orissa

cyclone, satellite phones emerged as the invincible tool in the

hand of the relief agencies. The hand-held satellite phones

based on Global Mobile Personal Communication System (GMPCS) has

the distinct advantage of overcoming problems of geographical

coverage. This has the potential of revolutionizing the relief

operations. Prohibitive cost of using a GMPCS service is a

limiting factor for most of the developing countries like India.

Competition among satellite phone service providers will

certainly lead to a substantial reduction in the tariff for such

service.

It is worth noting that

Inmarsat terminals were airlifted into the cyclone-hit region of

Orissa by the Indian Army to help in the disaster relief

operation. To restore communications quickly, two army signal

detachments carrying Inmarsat-M and mini-M phones were flown

into the area to re-establish communications with the rest of

the country at Bhubaneshwar and Balasore. More than a dozen

mini-Ms were pressed into service in the disaster zone, and the

DoT placed urgent orders for 10 more with manufacturer, Nera.

Cellular phones also proved to be a handy tool for the relief

managers during the current cyclone. Of course, this depends to

a large extent on the capacity of the relay stations (cells) to

withstand the fury of the nature. Radio communication by amateur

radio operators, called HAM is another low-cost and very

powerful means of ad-hoc communication. They have the potential

to provide the much-needed succour in areas where there is poor

telephone infrastructure. VSAT satellite links which allow long

distance voice and broadband communication with remote locations

can be used very effeciently as a tool for emergency

communications.

What Should Be

Done?

• The state
  
  governments should leverage on the emerging technologies to
  
  reduce the response time during the disaster.

• The examples
  
  of the government of Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh should
  
  be replicated.

• Level of
  
  co-operation between the state government, central
  
  government, and NGOs should be increased.

• Attempts
  
  should be made to create alternative channel of
  
  communication by giving licence to professional HAM radio
  
  operators and encouraging their usage.

• Telecom and
  
  IT equipment manufacturers should make systems that can
  
  weather natural calamities of any magnitude.

• There should
  
  be advance express permission from the central and state
  
  government to all the aid agencies so that valuable time is
  
  not lost in getting the sanction in the event of a disaster.

• Controlling a
  
  natural disaster is not on anybody''''s hands, but the damage
  
  done can be minimized and keeping communication network in
  
  place is the key to this.

There is a need to have a

communication network, which remains fully intact and

operational in the event of any catastrophe.