Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will inaugurate the Kerala State Disaster Management Authority’s (KSDMA) early warning system ‘KaWaCHaM’, acronym for Kerala Warnings Crisis and Hazards Management System, today (January 21) at 5 pm. The word ‘kavacham’ in Malayalam means ‘shield’, symbolising protection.
KaWaCHaM is developed by KSDMA with financial support from the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and the World Bank under the National Cyclone Risk Mitigation Project. This advanced system integrates Kerala’s entire early warning mechanism under one framework.
Key features of the system include hazard assessment, issuance of alerts, and action planning based on threat levels.
The system will have 126 sirens-strobe light units installed across the state, 93 emergency operations centres (EoCs) connected via VPNs (virtual private networks), decision support software and a large data centre for streamlined operations.
The system will have weather warnings sourced from global weather models. As soon as they are received from the central nodal departments, these will then be disseminated through social media and location-based SMS alerts.
A siren-strobe light network is being established to provide on-ground disaster notifications.
When alerts are issued by state and district EOCs, the sirens and messages will notify the public promptly about potential disasters.
The KSDMA conducted a successful test run of the sirens last year.