Geographically, Bhutan is vulnerable to natural disasters like earthquakes and glacier floods. Technologically, Bhutan is not yet well equipped to live through such disasters. Agreeing that telecommunications play a vital role during natural calamities, a two-day workshop on emergency telecommunications is underway to prepare technologically.
The Ministry of Information and Communications (MoIC) and the World Food Programme (WFP) are organizing the two-day workshop, bringing together all key stakeholders in preparing against any natural calamities that may strike Bhutan in future.
ICT officers from 20 districts, participants from two telecoms, the department of disaster management, Bhutan Power Corporation and the army are taking part in the workshop. The workshop is providing insights on initiatives taken by various relevant agencies for disaster management in the country.
“A lot of works have been done in Bhutan in terms of resilience in the telecoms. But it is a question of also sharing the progress amongst all of the key stakeholders and that is what the workshop will do. But with proper planning, procedure and an element for a roadmap in place, it will result in having a better operating procedure in the pre-disaster as well as the post-disaster scenario. And as a result of that, it would help in enhancing the resilience of telecoms towards the safety of people and the safety of infrastructure as well,” said Ria Sen, the Preparedness and Resilience Officer for Global Emergency Telecoms Cluster at the WFP.
The workshop is expected to draft emergency telecommunication preparedness and response action plan and also a roadmap and a strategic plan for this emergency communications.
“Here we have identified some of the roles and responsibilities of some of the telecommunications service providers and stakeholders. It is to guide all the telecom service providers during a disaster so that they are alerted and they know their roles and responsibilities during disasters. So this will guide stakeholders during disasters,” added Thuenzang Choephel, an Engineer, from the Department of Information Technology & Telecom at the MoIC.
An official from the department of disaster management said, Bhutan is vulnerable to all kinds of natural disasters except tsunamis. She added, experts have warned that Bhutan is likely to face with more than 8 magnitude earthquake in the future.
Pema Tshewang
