Sub-Regional Workshop on E-resilience for the Asia-Pacific Information Superhighway (AP-IS)

ICT and DRR: Earthquake 2015

Santosh Sigdel Sr. Vice President, Society Nepal Outline oBackground Information on Disaster and ICT (Internet) oImpact of Earthquake on ICT Sector oImmediate responses oResponse made by Internet Society oLesson Learnt oRecommendations Major causes of Disasters in Nepal o Glacier Lakes o Flood o Earthquakes o Landslides o Fires o Epidemic Nepal: Vulnerability and Risk

Disasters Ranking Source

Disaster prone in the world 20th ranked UNDP/BCPR 2004

Climate change vulnerability- 4th Maplecroft,2011 ranked

Earthquake vulnerability risk 11th ranked UNDP/BCPR,2004

Water induced disaster risk 30th ranked UNDP/BCPR,2004

Kathmandu, the capital city- Earthquake among 21 mega cities High risk UNDP in the world

2 People loss lives daily in average and thousand of HHs displaced High risk GoN/MoHA,2010 every year. Current Status of Internet Penetration

Source: Nepal Telecom Authority, October 2016 • A recent (ESCAP) evaluation has classified Nepal’s international connectivity as ‘weak’ and its fixed and mobile infrastructure as ‘limited’.

GDP per Int’l. Band‐ Int’l. Domestic IP Competitive Fixed and Annual 1 Mbps Capita, YE width per Connecti Connectivity Transit ‐ness of Mobile Broadband 2012 (PPP, Capita vity Price Telecom Broad‐ band Subscription + USD) (Kbps) Market Infra‐ Installation as % structure of Nominal GDP per Capita

$1,600 0.7 Weak Limited Expensi Less Limited Very Expensive ve Competitive Earthquake 2015 • Powerful earthquake on 25 April 2015 with magnitude of 7.8 followed by 475 aftershocks until last week • 8,000+ people lost their lives • 23000+ people were injured. • Half million private houses were fully destroyed and 250,000 houses were partially damaged. • 8 million people were affected. • 14 out 75 districts were mostly affected, including capital area. What happened after earthquake o Electricity power grid went down o Internet Services disrupted o Network congestion and Downtime o Voice call service was severely disrupted whereas SMS and internet were intermittent o Nepal’s international Internet links survived but last mile connection was disrupted causing problem for immediate search and rescue operation (SAR)

Communication Sector Infrastructure damage- Nepal Telecom

S.N. Asset Count 1 BTSs Affected 525

2 Transmission Towers Affected 10

3 Fiber Backhaul Affected 2

4 Microwave Links Affected 15

5 Physical Buildings Affected 197 •The total damages and losses of infrastructures related ICT in economic flows are estimated at US$36.10 million and US$ 50.85 million respectively. Electricity

• The April 2015 earthquake significantly damaged hydropower plants, the transmission system (substation and lines) and distribution lines. • Electricity generation facilities and distribution networks were damaged in a big way. • 115 MW hydropower facilities out of the 787 MW total installed capacity in the country were fully damaged • 60 MW were partially damaged • about 800 km of distribution and 365 transformers were damaged and non-operational. Situation at hand at that time • No shared information platforms • No Cross-Agency Situational-Awareness (CASA) platform • No integrated Incident Command and Control System (ICCS) • All the emergency services were working independently improvising and adjusting to the situation presented to them • National Disaster Response Framework (NDRF) was approved in 2013 but not implemented • - Example: Emergency Communication Strategy within 6 months (not implemented)

Role of ICT • Use of ICT in Search and Rescue • Post-disaster relief efforts relied heavily on , internet and broadcast media • ICT helped to keep the people informed during and post disaster period • ICT helped to inform people about the recovery and reconstruction programs • 500+ FM Stations/Radio Nepal • Social Media (Twitter/Facebook) • Open Street Maps

Initiatives by ICT community . has deployed its Person Finder to help track people in Nepal. The Web application lets people post or search for information on relatives and friends affected by a disaster. . Skype made all Skype calls to and mobiles in and out of Nepal free of charge from 27th April to 15th June. . Facebook has also launched Safety Check that automatically lets people in the impacted region inform others about their safety. . Viber has switched off 'Viber Out' billing in Nepal. Calls to Nepal via Viber Out have also been made free. . Nepal Telecom and , two major service providers, provided free voice and date services . Telecom service providers from many countries including India, United states, United Kingdom provided free voice and data service to make call or SMS to Nepal for few weeks . (ITU) contributed with satellite telecommunications equipment,

ETC: Emergency Cluster

 Objective: provide the humanitarian community in Nepal with shared internet connectivity and security telecommunications services.  Cluster was providing shared internet connectivity services in 13 sites  1,550 humanitarians from over 250 organizations were registered to use ETC services in Nepal.  Cluster also build local capacity to ensure the sustainability of its deployed services and solutions in Nepal. Internet Society

 Internet Society Nepal launched a “RECONNECT Nepal” Project  handed over connection equipment to Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of Nepal Police to support efficient earthquake rescue operation.  over 50 Nos of Power Bank (Mobile Recharger), 20 Set of Inverter, Solar Panel and Battery  Established mobile charging station at various location to enable general population to charge their mobile phones with solar charger.  Organized INET: Learning Lessons from Nepal-Embracing ICT for Disaster Management  participation of 150 people from diverse sectors of ICT in the country and from abroad.  Research In collaboration with LIRNEasia: Evaluation of Nepal’s Emergency Communication System

Glimpses of the ISOC Nepal Activities Installation of Solar panels/batteries to reconnect communities Free Wi-Fi Zone/Mobile recharge Centers Distribution of Generators to Community Radios Research Was ICT sector resilient?

• Partially (May be) • Why? Post Disaster Need Assessment (PDNA)

• Disaster Risk Reduction and Build Back Better (Short-term priorities)  reconstruction of damaged DRR assets and improvements on BBB principle;  measures to improve preparedness, response, relief and logistics systems;  measures to strengthen information and communication capacities for relief, response and recovery; and  measures to enhance multi-hazard risk monitoring, vulnerability assessment, risk information dissemination and awareness. Medium to long term priorities include: • Improvements in legal and institutional arrangements; • Measures to mainstream DRR into the developmental sector, particularly housing, private and public infrastructure, social sectors (health and education), and livelihood; and • Measures to improve integration of climate change adaptation and DRR Building Back Better (Creating Resilience) Area Immediate Need Specific Action

Restoring Nepal Telecom’s 1. Repairing local access 1. Confirm locations and cost of repairing access local network for priority networks in Kathmandu and network for priority customers customers affected districts for priority 2. Pool requests for power generators across sectors customers (government, hospitals, schools) 2. Emergency power generators

Cellular and Internet 1. Restore cellular service by 1. Use RTDF to build new towers in severely affected services repairing fallen/ damaged sites districts and ensure infrastructure sharing between 2. Provide high speed broadband operators connectivity in the worst- 2. Use RTDF to support development of wireless affected districts. broadband networks in worst affected districts 3. Lease government land, where 3. Use government resource and RTDF to finance the available, within Kathmandu early build out of community information centers in Valley to operators to build every VDC in rural Nepal. towers 4. NTA and MOIC to identify in collaboration with operators, sites for leasing from government. Building Back Better (Creating Resilience) Area Medium Term Needs Specific Action Building resilience in 1. Establish redundancy for 1. RTDF fund utilized for redundant network build-outs, with international and national international gateways at both the infrastructure sharing mandated. communication India and China borders.

2. Deploy short terrestrial fiber 2. Review of telecommunications sector policy and regulatory networks to India and China at border framework to ensure that infrastructure investments are future points. proofed. 3. Deploy national backbone network 3. Adopt a policy, legal and regulatory framework for with open access (e.g., by including it infrastructure sharing across utilities and sectors (roads, urban, in the electricity network rebuilt) power) and easier rights of way access.

4. Install additional towers in rural 4. Identify critical network points and implement early warning areas to provide increased coverage systems (EWS) in coordination with other agencies that have and ensure tower sharing existing EWS. Building resilience to loss of • Create system of redundant 1. Establish government disaster recovery data centers. critical data across sectors repositories of data for critical 2. Pilot and adopt the concept of “cloud computing” government information systems Area Medium Term Needs Specific Action

Building resilience in 6. Implement a disaster 6. Develop mobile applications for both smart and international and recovery telecommunications feature phones that can send messages from a national Standard Operating customer to preselected numbers communication Procedures (SOPs)

7. Develop and raise citizen 7. Raise awareness among consumers on using awareness of telecommunications and ICT services during telecommunications and ICT disasters in order to prevent network congestion. services and applications for use during disasters Development after earthquake  Preparation of Post Disaster Needs Assessment Report by National Planning Commission: Communication was one of the key sector  Emergency Telecommunication Continuity Management System: Draft is ready  ITU provided the technical Support  National Emergency Telecommunications Plan: Draft ready/revised/not approved yet  Optical Fibre connection with China in June 2016, creating necessary redundancy Nepal now can be directly linked with Hong Kong Data Center, which is one of the two biggest global date centers in Asia, through the Chinese mainland. Test successfully completed, commercial use is expected within few months  NT has signed initial memorandum of understanding with , another Chinese telecom operator, for further cross-border optical fiber connectivity.

Disaster Management System Recommendations

 Need for shared information platforms  Common operating picture for improving institutional responsiveness to crises and emergencies  Telecommunications availability/survivability assessment necessary  Business Continuity-Disaster Recovery Plan (BC-DRC) capacity development,  Establish a set of emergency telecommunications infrastructure construction and operational best-practices supportive of national emergency communication resilience  a multi-sectoral multi-stakeholder collaborative approach is necessary for policy development

Thank you for your patience

@Sigdelsantosh