Mobilizing Volunteers to Respond to Oil Disasters in the Baltic Sea
From Shareideas
In the event of an oil spill in the Baltic Sea, World Wildlife Fund-Finland has developed an SMS alert system capable of mobilizing hundreds of volunteers to carry out emergency clean up efforts.
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Every day, hundreds of ships pass through the Baltic Sea, a major transit route for oil tankers en route from Russia to Europe. The growing number of such ships increases the risk of accidental oil spills and their potential to devastate vulnerable coastal areas with large bird populations. In the aftermath of an oil spill, weak currents and cold temperatures can make dispersal slow and difficult, not to mention the difficulties with oil response and collection in such conditions.
To prepare in the event of an oil spill in the Baltic, World Wildlife Fund-Finland worked with Mermit Business Applications Ltd to develop a short messaging system capable of quickly mobilizing volunteers. As a result WWF Finland is now able to deliver information and action steps to more than 3,900 volunteers – within minutes – via SMS.
The new system was created using open source and Mermit MISP-technologies. Mermit developed the system at no cost as part of its social responsibility program.
How they did it
WWF Finland founded their volunteer oil combating brigade in 2003. Since then WWF has actively worked to improve its network and cooperation with key authorities. Several trainings were organized for volunteers to prepare them for oil spill response.
The SMS system is intended for rapid response purposes. Should an oil spill happen and the rescue authorities require a group of volunteers to help quickly (e.g. with catching oiled wildlife), WWF could send SMS’s to a large group of volunteers. Then people who are capable of responding can report back to WWF. Within hours WWF could organize, equip, and send a small tactical team on site.
Volunteers register to WWF’s volunteer oil combating brigades through WWF Finland’s website. They give their contact details and information, for instance, on special skills they may have. WWF Finland maintains a database containing all this information. In addition, all the mobile phone numbers are stored in the application created by Mermit, so that SMS’s can be quickly sent in case of an oil accident. The system has – luckily! – not yet been tested in a big, real-life oil accident, but volunteers have received some test SMS’s from WWF, with good results. In constant communications between WWF and the volunteers, also e-mail and web pages are widely used.
