A cause for alarm

Whether it is a poisoned water supply, a nuclear reactor going intomeltdown or a terrorist attack due to hit London in half an hour, the UK does not have the public warning systems needed to alert people to impending disaster.

Emergency planners today are relying on cobwebbed sirens decommissioned after the cold war, sluggish autodialling telephones and police with loudhailers to avert deaths. The technology exists to mass-inform the public in seconds and major utilities are planning trials around high-risk plants. But the government has so far ignored recommendations for trials that could save thousands of lives, the telecoms industry claims.

The recent disaster in the Indian Ocean shows just how difficult it can be to get life-saving information out to those in jeopardy, but the need for rapid and reliable ways to disseminate warnings is not just restricted to countries like Sri Lanka and Indonesia.

While natural disasters on such an unimaginable scale are unlikely in the UK, nuclear accidents, flash floods — as we saw in Boscastle — or terrorist bombs are plausible hazards. People are easy to reach if they are sitting in front of the television on a week night, but warning people at 3am on a national holiday poses significant problems for emergency planners.