Romania plans to implement an emergency warning system that will allow the simultaneous transmission of a text message to all mobile phone users in areas where situations of major risk may occur, the local telecom regulator authority ANCOM said.

The Romanian Government declared the introduction of an emergency population warning system a priority after severe storms in the Western part of the country on August 17 left 8 people dead and 145 hurt.

The system, called Sistem Alert, will use the ‘cell broadcast messages’ technology, and is modeled after similar systems in other European countries.

It should be set up in a few weeks, Adrian Dita, the ANCOM president, told Digi24.

“We are talking about weeks, it depends on some technical elements that need to be discussed today and in the coming days so we can have an objective analysis and start the process of implementing this integrated system […] More specifically, we are in a situation to have the solution in a few days and its implementation very rapidly,” he said.

The first details about the upcoming emergency warning system came after the September 18 meeting of a task group made up of representatives of the Department for Emergency Situations (SDU), of the General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations (IGSU), of the Special Telecommunications Service (STS), and of mobile telephony companies. ANCOM, IGSU, STS and the mobile telephony operators will develop and implement the warning system.

Besides the warning system, the authorities also plan a public information campaign on how the population can use Sistem Alert.

The National Meteorological Administration (ANM) said that the September 17 storm, of an unusual severity, was caused by a cold air front coming from Bosnia – Herzegovina over Serbia and Hungary, which came into contact with the warm air in the impacted areas.

editor@romania-insider.com