Finnish ICT company Mermit Business Applications has donated an SMS alarm system to World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Finland.
In the case of an oil tanker disaster in the Baltic Sea region, WWF Finland can deliver information and action guidelines to more than 3 000 volunteers via SMS.
In the case of a disaster, an SMS is typed and then distributed to all the volunteers. "The SMS alarm system is a great way to improve the communication efficiency if an oil disaster happens," says Mermit`s marketing director, Pietari P"aiv"anen.
The messaging system is based on open source and Mermit Mobile Integration and Service Platform (MISP) technologies.
Mermit will sponsor all the communication costs.
The system is intended to mobilise clean-up volunteers as quickly as possible to limit the damage caused by an oil spill. P"aiv"anen notes: "We all remember the Prestige catastrophe in Spain, which killed 300 000 sea birds and cost 5 billion euros in cleanup and environmental damage."
However, P"aiv"anen is optimistic. "We sure hope they are not going to be needed this year - or ever actually," he says.
"As Russia continues its expansion of oil transportation in the Baltic Sea, the need for special protection measures in one of the Earth`s most vulnerable seas is imminent," says Anita M"akinen, head of WWF`s Particularly Sensitive Seas Areas Baltic campaign.
WWF Finland is not the first non-profit organisation to benefit from Mermit MISP; others include YLE (Finland`s national public service broadcasting company), the City of Helsinki and Sibelius Academy (a music university in Finland).
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