Summer heat waves: Plans discussed

Vijayawada: AP State Disaster Management (APSDM) will introduce advanced Cell Broad casting system to send SMS bulk messages to the people on heat waves and other type of disasters, the Commissioner of Disaster Management M V Seshagiribabu said on Thursday.

He addressed the second and concluding day of the national workshop organised at a hotel here on ‘Preparedness, Mitigation and Management of Heat wave’.

The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), in association with the AP State Disaster Management and Unicef, conducted the workshop to discuss the measures to be taken for the effective implementation of heat waves action plan and preparedness by the government departments, NGOs etc.  

Seshagiribabu has said the state disaster management is collecting weather reports from the 1,168 automatic weather stations installed at various parts of the state. At present, the department is sending bulk SMS messages on heat wave alerts to only BSNL customers.

He said efforts were on to send bulk messages to the customers of all networks like Airtel, Idea, Vodafone and Telenor etc. Efforts were on to provide advanced Cell Broadcasting system in the state.  

The state disaster management has been implementing the action plan for the last two years, he said and pointed out that more Indian Meteorology Department (IMD) centres should be set up in the state. He said climate change is the prime reason for the growing temperature levels and heat waves in the state and other parts of the country.

National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), Government of India, member R K Jain chaired the workshop. NDMA Joint Secretary V Thiruppugazh has said that local bodies and district administrations have to take lead role in minimising the impact of heat waves on the people.

He stressed on the need to conduct more workshops to create awareness among the people on heat waves mitigation. Another member of NDMA Kamal Kishore and other officials spoke on the occasion. Over 50 delegates from 17 states participated in the workshop.