Germany plans to have a mechanism for automatically sending alerts via mobile phones to warn populations of a possible danger, particularly in the event of a natural disaster, Interior Minister Horst announced on Monday (July 26th). Seehofer, after the recent deadly floods.
Read also: In Germany, 180 dead in floods, according to a new report
“
In recent months, the idea has not always aroused everyone's enthusiasm. But I decided we were going to do it. There is no reasonable argument against that,
”explained Horst Seehofer, heard in the Bundestag by parliamentarians following the terrible floods which hit the country in mid-July. The German authorities and security services have been criticized for having partly failed to warn the populations concerned in time of the seriousness of the floods. While the German meteorological service and the Federal Office for Disaster Prevention issued warnings, these were not sufficiently relayed.
Among the avenues for improving prevention, the German government now intends to authorize the sending of alerts by telephone, a mechanism called "
Cell Broadcasting
".
Resembling an SMS, this alert is sent by a public authority to the mobile phone of people located in a risk area, via its network operator.
Read also: Germany: floods will cost insurers up to 5 billion euros in damage
Germany wants to reinstate the siren prevention system
Unlike a text message, the message is not addressed to a specific number, making this system compatible with the protection of private data, a very important concern in Germany. And unlike SMS, a cell broadcast message arrives even if the network is overloaded. This technology, which requires an investment of tens of millions of euros, is still little used in Europe, while similar systems are widespread in the United States and Japan for disaster management.
In addition to this cellular alert system, Germany also intends to reinstate a prevention system using sirens, many of which had been dismantled in recent years for lack of maintenance.
A national test of this system inherited from the Cold War had turned into a fiasco last year, some sirens not having been triggered for technical reasons.
Municipalities had also simply removed them, deeming them unnecessary.
Read also: Floods in Germany: the state on the front line to pay a bill "in billions of euros"
The torrential rains that hit the west of the country on July 14 and 15, causing a sudden rise in water levels, especially in the regions of Bonn and Cologne, killed a total of 180 people in Germany, mainly in the Land Rhineland-Palatinate. In this region, where all the victims have not yet been identified, 74 people are also considered missing or unreachable.