Page 1 of 2Following a natural disaster, establishing communications for first responders on the scene, at a time when local network infrastructure is likely damaged or destroyed, is crucial to saving lives in the immediate aftermath of such events, writes Tim Guest
Establishing reliable communications is also essential for the aid and NGO relief agencies that arrive on the scene to establish long-term presences, in the days, weeks and months which follow.
Since 2002, more than 1,700 natural disasters have impacted Africa and killed more than 50,000 people. Some 150 of those events took place during 2011 and claimed 3,500 lives.
Setting the scene
The figures above are provided by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies’ (IFRC) World Disasters Report 2012. Whilst shocking, these figures are just the tip of the post-disaster iceberg, for, as the report states, disasters also leave behind many more affected and displaced. The IFRC estimates the numbers affected by disasters in 2011 across Africa was - and is - a staggering 19mn people. But it’s not hard to accept such figures when one realises the nature of the disasters involved: 23 earthquakes and/or tsunamis, 450 floods, 10 major forest and scrub fires, six volcanic eruptions and 89 major storms - events which typically wrought havoc to the local communications infrastructure, if there was any in the first place, but certainly demanded the establishment of effective communications thereafter.
The need for comms
Mobile communications infrastructure across Africa has evolved in leaps and bounds in recent years and even in many rural areas, remote and isolated from national grid power, local mobile communications networks for both domestic and enterprise communities have been established thanks to backhaul via satellite, as well as other technological advances that have made remote rural comms viable for the operators. And with the problems associated with the roll-out of copper and fibre, such as theft, mobile communications is now the predominant form of communications across Africa.
As a result, many people now have mobile phones they use on a daily basis and in the immediate aftermath of a disaster calling for help would typically be the first reaction of most of them. Family and friends will be attempting calls to each other; they’ll also try the local emergency services, if there are any, and if they are used to doing so, they may also try and access news information services on their mobiles for latest developments or simply to find out what on earth has happened to them. If someone is trapped and trying to make a call for help, such service may be an imminent matter of life or death. But if the network is down, or there isn’t one to start with, there will be no reply. Either way, the first responders will need to have some kind of emergency network infrastructure on which to rely and over which they can communicate with fellow first responders to coordinate immediate relief efforts.
Time is critical. When it comes to the injured, in emergency medicine, the ‘golden hour’ as it is often called typically refers to the period of time during which timely medical treatment will offer the best chances of survival to any victims who have sustained serious traumatic injury. The fact that this golden time can last from a few minutes to several hours following injury makes it crucial that first responders arrive and function fully on the scene of a disaster as early as possible. Doctors, medics, firefighters, sniffer dog teams, all will need radios, handsets; all will be in different regions, areas, suburbs, streets, but all will need to be able to call on the other in order to conduct effective rescues.
But having handsets alone is pointless unless there’s a network to carry the emergency voice and data traffic required. So the networks must be well prepared in the event of a natural disaster to come back online as fast as possible. They need back-up power supplies for cell sites, and oodles of spare capacity to handle the sudden spike in calls as everyone with a phone tries to make a call, not least of whom will be the first responders. Networks need to be resilient, responsive and adaptable in these times of catastrophe.
As a result, leading operators typically put exhaustive emergency communications/disaster response plans in place, including guidelines and instructions for effective ‘peer-to-peer’ industry co-operation that will see operators calling on vendors at short notice for the ‘immediate, priority’ supply of replacement mobile communications infrastructure and equipment that may have to be taken off another customer’s order fulfillment book and flown to a disaster location or region without delay. Dealing with the vendor in such a scenario is one thing but the transportation logistics in delivering infrastructure to a remote, inaccessible area, for example, may require the operator’s emergency/DR team to coordinate with the military for helicopter support, or other transportation authorities, or companies for, say, the provision of a riverboat. Anything an operator needs to re-establish, the network must be provisioned for in their DR planning.
Planning
If operators get their networks functioning, aid organizations and emergency responders will be able to communicate amongst themselves and coordinate more effective relief and rescue activities as the network comes back online with increased capacity that is no longer restricted to just the emergency and AID teams. But as already stressed, it takes planning and preparation to ensure this happens. And that’s where the mobile industry and other organizations have joined forces in a number of initiatives to make sure this happens. The GSM Association’s (GSMA) Disaster Response Programme, for example, involves mobile operators and NGO aid organizations around the world who together plan disaster response preparedness in different regions of the globe. The GSMA’s Disaster Response Programme is just one of several programmes, which fall under the umbrella of its ‘Mobile for Development’ initiative, which supports the deployment of commercial mobile services in emerging and developing regions of the world where many communities remain either underserved by telecommunications or unconnected, completely.
Its DR programme helps ensure plans and peer-to-peer expectations are in place through encouraging the early cooperation between government agencies, mobile network operators and NGO aid organizations. This avoids confusion at the outset of a critical situation by making sure everyone knows the role they must play and the services and provisions they are expected to supply and deliver.
So, a vendor expected to supply replacement and emergency network infrastructure and technical personnel, or fuel to run base stations, will know what is expected of them and the logistics provider - possibly the military - which will help to get that equipment through to the hardest hit and most isolated regions, will all know and be in contact with each other to get the job done.
