Recently, flood in Pakistan hit major areas of Punjab and resulted in a large disaster to lives and economy. Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) has instructed all the mobile network operators of Pakistan to start SMS flood alert service in the affected areas of Punjab and other districts.
PTA passed this statement on 7th of September 2014 with which people in the flood hit areas will be aware about the alerts. According to PTA, the Federal as well as the Punjab Government directed PTA to run SMS broadcast messages via Cellular Mobile Operators (CMOs) to aware people in the heavy flood areas of Punjab. This way, the risky people in the flood areas can look for the safer place by vacating the expected flood location by receiving in-time and accurate warnings and information about the flood in the residential areas and fields.
The details of SMS flood alert service will be provided by Disaster Management Authorities and include the situation of water around people stuck in flood area, change in flow of flood water, guidance to find the safer locations by saving time as well as changing circumstances of each and every flood-affected area.
Disaster Management Authorities would provide relevant information for the SMSs to mobile operators keeping in view the changing situation of each and every flood-torn area. The area-specific SMS would help public in getting accurate and in time information and warnings about the flood in the area of their residence.
From 7th of September, messages about flood warnings and alerts were sent by Ufone, Telenor, Zong, Mobilink and Warid in districts of Sialkot, Sheikhupura, Gujrat, Mandi Bahauddin, Faisalabad, Jehlum, Muzaffargarh, Khanewal, Narowal, Gujranwala, Hafizabad, Chiniot, Jhang, Multan, Bahawalpur.
