TSF SITREP n°1

TSF SITREP n°1 - 05/05/2015
General Context
On 25 April, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake with a depth of 2 km, hit Nepal. The government is
reporting that 39 out of 75 districts have been affected in the Western and Central Regions,
including Kathmandu Valley districts (ACAPS 28 April 2015). The epicentre is located 81 km
northwest of Kathmandu, and 68 km east from Pokhara. At least 44 aftershocks have been felt
and continue to occur. The magnitude of certain aftershocks have ranged from 5 – 6.7 (Sphere
India SitRep3). The Government of Nepal has requested for international assistance including
deployment of Urban Search and Rescue teams and declared a state of emergency.1
TSF Deployment
A team of ICT specialists deployed to Bangkok, Thailand on Monday April 27th 2015. The TSF
team arrived on Tuesday 28th at Kathmandu.
Team
Name
Role
Location
Phone Contact
E-mail contact
Florent BERVAS
Head Of Mission
Kathmandu
+ 977 981 318 3056
+33 559 844 360
[email protected]
Alexander
James THOMAS
Communication Officer Sindhupalch
/ HCO Coordinator
ok
+ 977 981 891 3273
[email protected]
Paul MARGIE
HCO Coordinator
Dhading
+ 977 981 316 2060
[email protected]
Serena
AMATAYA
ICT Support
Sindhupalch
ok
+ 977 984 177 3597
[email protected]
Niraj BUHJEL
ICT Support
Dhading
+ 977 981 806 4257
+ 977 986 088 9200
[email protected]
Justin WALLER
ICT Specialist
Kathmandu
+ 977 981 317 8752
justin.waller@v
odafone.com
Coordination
TSF is collaborating with local UN coordination agencies to assess the damaged areas. These
multi-sector assessments (structure, damage, sanitation, food, water, communications) are
shared with the humanitarian community through UNDAC, the ETC Cluster and ACAPS
1
OCHA, VOSOCC Situation Overview
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(Assessment Capacity Project), which is the entity supporting United Nations on assessment
coordination.
TSF also participates in ETC meetings in order to update the cluster members about the latest
telecoms situation reports and the identified needs.
Assessments
Kathmandu
Date: 28/04/2015
GPS coordinates: 27.698930, 85.333171
Kathmandu was hit by the earthquake on the April, 25. The mobile network has impacted, but
the main difficulties faced were not the destruction of the BTS but rather the congestion of the
networks. As the telecoms infrastructure was degraded, local operator NCell advised their
customers to use SMS to communicate as opposed to voice calls. NTC decided to remove all
the limitations by offering free unlimited calls, which resulted in a fully congested network.
But up until today, a big issue is still noticed on the Ncell network: international routing is not
working well. This behavior has been noticed on many local phone numbers, which have been
victims of these problems:
-
International callers reach the wrong phone number, even if the right number has been
dialed ;
-
International callers hear a tone while the destination phone is not ringing ;
-
International callers can send SMS but the destination phone will not receive ;
-
Communication between local phone and international caller frequently cuts off ;
Telecoms Centres
The telecoms centres set up by TSF are delivering common services to the humanitarian
community.
In the first few days, TSF deployed the following telecoms services:

UN RDC (Reception/Departure Centre) : from 30/04/2015 to 03/05/2015
o Data (satellite)
o IT Services (printer)
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
OSOCC - USAR Camp: from 28/04/2015 to 03/05/2015
o Data (satellite)
o IT support by TSF ICT Specialist
Himalaya Assessment Operations
Team A: Sindhupalchowk District
Coordination
The team arrived in Chautara on Sunday, May 3rd 2015. Discussions with UNDAC team
deployed there since May 1st. The District Councilor has confirmed a lack of communications in
the Tatopani VDC2.
In VDC Fulpingkatti, Chaku is the furthest accessible village by car. From there, the only way to
reach Tatopani is by foot (~ 3 km). But a new landslide has been reported on the May 1 st, and
the access to Tatopani using this road is totally blocked, even by foot.
The clearance of the roads can require several days, so the team had no choice but to return to
Chautara in order to identify another accessible areas in need of telecommunication.
2
Village Development Committee
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UN Support
A sub-OSOCC has been deployed in Chautara by UN teams. TSF team is integrated in UN
OSOCC by helping with IT support for people who want to access Internet, and by providing
accurate assessment information about situation in Bahrabise, along the road between
Chautara and Chinese border in the North.
Additionally, the team also planned to support UN assessment teams, increasing human
resources and allowing for futher assessments, and thus the capacity to cover quickly the
affected areas.
Highlights

Roads are still inaccessible due to landslides.

Several kilometers between Chaku and Tatopani cannot be accessed by car.

Coordination with UNDAC team in Chautara ;

Coordinated assessment areas between UNDAC teams and TSF ;

Areas identified in collaboration with the Chief District Officer of Sindhupalchowk ;
Intervention plan
The team had initially planned to reach the VDC Tatopani in order to assess precisely the
telecoms situation, and to get accurate information directly from the field.
Because of the damaged roads and continuing landslides, the team had to retreat to Chautara
and is now looking for new accessible areas. The team will be working to find isolated but
accessible areas, taking into account the security issues reported by the humanitarian
community:
-
Aftershock activity is still strong, with more than 10 aftershocks per day (> 4.5
magnitude);
-
Landslides are frequent, and the number of inaccessible roads is growing;
-
An aggressive behavior of isolated populations has been reported due to the slow arrival
of assistance;
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Team B: Dhading District
Coordination
The team has been deployed in the Dhading District, which has been badly affected by the
Earthquake. While a lot of humanitarian teams are reaching Gorkha, the isolated communities in
the Dhading District still strongly need telecoms services to report their situation.
The team left from Dhading Gesi (District capital) and has been dropped by car in Lapang
Village, near an accessible road. From there, they planned to climb the Himalaya Mountains
from 800 meters to more than 2,000 meters to reach the isolated villages.
The aim is to provide free humanitarian calls to affected populations that have been cut off from
the rest of the world since the disaster.
Highlights
-
A lot of roads are closed, which results in adding several walking days to reach isolated
villages;
-
Being self-sufficient in the mountains for one week requires a lot of supplies;
Intervention plan
The team will be picked up in the mountains on May 6th, and then will go back to Dhading city.
From there, they would be able to find a helicopter if available to reach high located villages.
High altitude is a key factor for the satellite network availability.
If the areas cannot be reached by other logistic means, the team will move to Bidur, Nuwakot
District, in order to lead mutual assessments with the other relief organisations working there.
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Map of Operations
Chronology
-
26/04/2015: Departure of a TSF emergency team from International Headquarters,
France.
-
27/04/2015: Arrival in Bangkok, TSF volunteers have been integrated into the team. All
commercial flights for Kathmandu have been cancelled.
-
28/04/2015: The team successfully boarded in the first authorised commercial flight from
Bangkok and arrived in Kathmandu. TSF set up its base in the USAR Camp.
Deployment of the first BGAN to support the UN OSOCC in USAR Camp.
-
29/04/2015: Coordination with humanitarian community.
-
30/04/2014: Deployment of BGAN to support the UN Reception Departure Centre at the
Airport until a dedicated optical fiber is deployed.
-
03/05/2015: Deployment of the two TSF trekking teams to reach isolated villages in the
mountains.
-
04-05/05/2015: HCO and assessment operations are on-going in the Sindhupalchok
District and the Dhading District.
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Foreseen activities
On the May 5th, observations and assessments notify that mobile network coverage is
recovering quickly in the most populated areas, at the bottom of the mountains. But a lot of
villages have remained disconnected from the world for more than one week.
The priority of TSF teams is to reach these communities to allow them to share their needs and
request assistance.
Highlights
TSF teams have been deployed in Dhading and Sindhupalchowk in order to lead their own
assessments to be shared with the humanitarian community. With Isatphones, BGAN, GPS and
satellite tracker, the teams are able to identify affected areas without coverage and to set up
quickly Humanitarian Calling Operations in order to help isolated families.
TSF has also spare satellite equipment and is coordinated with Emergency Telecommunication
Cluster to provide connectivity support with BGANs, Satphones and potentially VSATs to
humanitarian partners.
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