VILLAGERS living in vulnerable areas of Bangladesh will soon get warnings of impending cyclones and floods on their mobile phones, a government spokesman has said.
The new system is intended to save lives in a country often plagued by extreme weather.
With the number of mobile phone users on the rise, the government recently signed deals with two major phone operators to send instant alerts on cyclone or flood forecasts to their customers in the southern Cox’s Bazar and central Sirajganj districts, said Golam Kibria, a spokesman for the Disaster Management Ministry.
At least 28m people live in the two districts, though Kibria could not say how many of those had mobile phones.
Privately owned Grameenphone and state-run Teletalk will operate the pilot project for six months, from June to November – the months most prone to monsoon rains and tropical storms.
