Rwanda | Residents to use cell phones for disaster alerts
Making one single phone call, may now be the way forward for residents living in disaster risky areas to call for early rescue and intervention in times of disaster.
This new method of responding to disaster was made a reality, when the Ministry of Disaster Management and Refugee Affairs (MIDIMAR) donated cell phones that will be used by residents to send alerts in time.
The phones were donated by the UN world Food Program and UN High Commission for Refugees (UNWFP and UNHCR) and distributed all 30 districts during a launch programme held in Rubavu district, Western province this May 6. The phones will be possessed by the social welfare officials in each of the sectors, countrywide.
The pivotal persons will be required to send on time alerts (on a hotline 170) to the ministry of disaster management, about any kind of disaster happening or potential risks sighted in their respective areas, as a way of enabling the ministry to respond immediately.
Most of the disaster risky areas include the western and Eastern provinces of Rwanda. The commonest disasters experienced in these areas, like many others, include: heavy rains falls and floods, earth quakes, and wild winds among others.
The ministry also has plans of distributing computers to all the sectors, as a way of gathering information on disaster related issues, documentation and education of the local communities of issues surrounding natural calamities and other disaster that may befall the communities in Rwanda.
This will be additional effort to already established strategies of educating residents on disaster management, inventing modules of disaster management to be taught in secondary schools, and training of local leaders.
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