Following the devastating landslides and flooding seen in Switzerland in the last month, the government has now announced how it plans to inform residents about emergencies in the future. In a new addition, authorities will install technology that will send direct text alerts to mobile phones.
In a statement, the Federal Office for Civil Protection (FOCP) confirmed that it would be modernising how the public in Switzerland is informed about impending disasters and emergencies. “In view of the increasing challenges posed by extreme storms and other dangerous situations, Switzerland continues to rely on a versatile, multi-channel strategy for alerting the population,” they noted.
The new policies are partly a response to the recent “severe storms” seen in Switzerland in the past month. Weeks of continual rainfall in late June eventually led to a landslide that destroyed part of the A13 and led to multiple deaths. A further four people passed away a week later following a storm in Ticino and Valais.
Against this backdrop, the FOCP announced a series of measures that will update the current alert system. This will include modernising and maintaining the existing network of alarms and sirens in Switzerland, which they argue are “particularly effective at alerting people at night and work even when communications networks fail.”
Alertswiss, the app which gives users location-based alerts and warnings, will also be upgraded. The FOCP wrote that the system “proved its worth during the recent storms”, but still needs to be expanded so that it can meet its potential. Alerts broadcast through the radio will also be maintained, and the FOCP will work with cantons to establish internet access and phone charging stations at emergency meeting points so that the public can access information if the cell network breaks.
Most significantly, the government announced that it would be developing a new “cell broadcasting system” that will allow short alerts - of 500 characters or less - to be sent "directly to all mobile phones in a defined area." The system, fully implemented in Germany in 2023, would allow the police, other emergency services and federal agencies to send important messages to phones, even those that don’t have the Alertswiss app installed.
In fact, the idea is not new in Switzerland either: the plan was first trialled in 2014, but was abandoned on the grounds that the technology would not be able to send messages to all types of mobile - an issue that was encountered in Germany too. Now, authorities say they have the know-how to make the idea a reality.
However, the FOCP noted that the plan will still “involve political choices and additional financial resources”, with the text system expected to cost 58 million francs. If Parliament give the green light, the text alert system will be up and running by 2026 at the earliest.