http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/19Dec2006_news04.php

TECHNOLOGIES / NATURAL DISASTERS

Call to improve aid relief efforts
Achara Ashayagachat

The government has been urged to put into place a "meaningful and unambiguous" disaster communication system so that relief efforts could be precise and effective.

Trin Tantsetthi, a member of the Campaign for Open Source in Thailand (COST) and CEO of Internet Thailand Plc, said the essence of disaster communications was to have meaningful ways of communication; not only an ability to communicate in the event of a disaster but also unambiguous communications.

"To achieve that goal, we need collaboration of two layers: physical and logical," Mr Trin said at a recent regional workshop on disaster communications, jointly organised by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (Escap) in Bangkok.

"The physical layer is where the most appropriated or multiple technologies are deployed in the field to ensure smooth relief operations for the benefit of disaster victims," said Mr Trin.

"The logical layer is to make sure that collaboration is done in an effective manner, insightful, and that pledges and demands do match and are delivered in a timely manner," he said.

He also called on the government to consider having effective disaster communications as a national agenda.

Meanwhile, Smith Dharmasaroja, chairman of the National Disaster Warning Centre, conceded Thailand might have good data on disaster but its system of disaster communications was still far from perfect.

"Currently, Thailand still relies on broadcast system, which is not enough for mitigation and evacuation. The centre has designed a multi-purpose communications gear to send SMS, fax, and internet messages via the satellite system, but this government seems not to be interested to pursue the plan," said Mr Smith.

He said the warning centre was internationally praised but not nationally admired. "If being set up as a legal entity, the centre will be able to function properly integrating technicians and personnel from related agencies including irrigation, meteorological and disaster relief departments."

The centre has finished installing 80 tsunami early-warning towers in six southern provinces along the Andaman coastline. The installation of another 48 towers in provinces along coastal provinces in the Gulf of Thailand should be finished by February.

The last phase to be carried out in disaster-prone areas in the remaining 57 provinces faced uncertainty as Deputy Prime Ministers M.R. Pridiyathorn Devakula and Kosit Panpiemras remained silent on Mr Smith's request to go ahead with the available budget for the installations.

Mr Smith said that without a warning system, many provinces, which remained unprepared, would suffer severe flooding as well as human casualties.

The three-day regional workshop aimed at providing guidance on technical, policy and institutional issues in the development of networks, systems and possible regional cooperation mechanisms for communications supporting disaster management with emphasis on emergency situations for the countries in Asia and the Pacific, especially the least developed countries, developing countries, as well as small developing islands.

The participants, including Thailand, were also urged to ratify the Tampere Convention on Disaster Communications, which called on signatories to end excessive import duties and to minimise administrative and political barriers that could prevent or delay the swift provision across national borders of emergency telecommunications that might be used in locating disaster victims or assisting in the movement of food, medicine and other vital supplies.