When a war or natural disaster causes disaster around the world and tons of people are displaced or forced to become homeless, communications and power infrastructures are quite often too badly damaged or non-existent.
Dispensing food, finding shelter and administering medical aid is made even harder for aid agencies and non-governmental organisations without proper communications, and people are frantic to let their loved ones know they’re safe and to find out what’s going on.
In order to help solve the communication problem, telecoms companies have been helpfully engaging in larger-scale communications projects in disaster areas around the world.
Mobile Phones
For example, Vodafone Foundation, have created “instant network mini”, an 11kg backpack containing a 2G mobile network that can offer a coverage radius of up to 1km, a six-hour battery and a small solar panel. The instant network mini kit was deployed in the Kathmandu valley, Nepal, with the hope it would help restore communications following the earthquake there earlier this year. Larger versions of its instant network kits have been used in South Sudan and the Philippines.
Crisis Apps
A number of organisations, such as Google and Medecins du Monde, are currently working on mobile phone apps that have the power to act as single information points, connecting doctors in developed countries with health workers in the field, or with other aid agencies, so each can know what the other is providing.
Flowminder, a Swedish company, use data from mobile operators to track the movements of populations – or their mobile phones – in disaster situations, which can help governments and aid agencies understand people’s behaviour and give them a better idea of where to dispense and channel resources.
Unfortunately technology alone cannot prevent the suffering following natural and man-made disasters, however its better use can at least improve the response of governments and aid agencies.
Photos by: BBC, Center for Neighborhood Technology.