UN Agency Issues Hi Tech Roadmap For Managing Disasters
New York, Sep 29 2006 12:00PM
In a region still reeling from the aftermath of the 2005 hurricane season, the most active and destructive in history,
United Nations disaster experts and partners meeting in the Caribbean have issued a roadmap on how to use information
and communication technologies to improve search-and-rescue missions, medical care and emergency relief.
The roadmap, adopted after a Forum in Jamaica organized by the UN’s International Telecommunication Union (<"http://www.itu.int/newsroom/press_releases/2006/18.html">ITU) and the Commonwealth Telecommunication Organization
(CTO), covers a wide range of issues including appropriate policies and common regional strategies aimed at mitigating
the effects of disasters.
“A number of initiatives are already off the ground,” said Cosmas Zavazava, Head of the ITU’s unit for Least Development
Countries, Small Island Developing States and Emergency Telecommunications. “One of the key elements relates to the
promotion of ‘emergency telecommunications readiness’ rather than to response and relief.”
In 2005, a record number of 27 storms and as many as 13 hurricanes pounded the vulnerable Caribbean coastline. These
included Hurricane Wilma, the most intense in recorded history, and Katrina, the most destructive which caused an
estimated $50 billion in insured damage.
Access to information is of paramount importance in the immediate aftermath of a disaster for relief agencies to
coordinate search-and-rescue, medical intervention and rehabilitation efforts, the ITU said in a press release. There is
an urgent need to establish effective and comprehensive communication links between the affected area, national disaster
response facilities, and with the larger international community.
“Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are the key to saving lives and property because they enable the
collection and timely dissemination of accurate information on acts of nature,” said J. Paul Morgan, Chairman of the
CTO, an international development partnership between Commonwealth and non-Commonwealth Governments business and other
organizations.
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