TENS of thousands of people in Bangladesh's flood and cyclone-prone areas will now receive advance warning of an impending natural disaster through an alert on their mobile phones.
Bangladesh – one of the world's most densely populated countries – is highly vulnerable to cyclones, storm surges, droughts, floods and earthquakes, which often affect millions of people.
In a bid to minimise loss of life and damage, Banglades
hi authorities have signed an agreement with two mobile operators in the country to provide disaster early warning alerts.
Grameenphone and state-owned Teletalk will send messages to subscribers in flood-prone north-central Shirajganj district and cyclone-prone Cox's Bazar district on the coast.
Syed Ashraf, of the country's disaster management bureau, said yesterday: "They will be able to take action like evacuate their homes and seek shelter in assigned places."
Bangladesh, with a population of about 162 million, has more than 46 million mobile phone subscribers.
Mr Ashraf said the messages would not be the usual SMS format, but would flash automatically on the screen of mobile phone sets, instead of going to message boxes.
This way, people would not have to even push a button on their handsets, making it very user-friendly, he added.
Cyclone Aila, which struck the coast last month, killed more than 170 people, damaged over 500,000 houses and affected more than 3 million people.
The country has an early warning system operated by the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society through 42,000 volunteers using bicycles and megaphones, but not all areas are covered.
