Six Brussels municipalities on Thursday will take part in a nationwide test of an alert system which aims to notify citizens directly in the case of a disaster.
Launched as a pilot project in 2014, BE-Alert is meant to offer authorities an alternative way of alerting citizens in addition to messages on social and mass media.
On 3 October, authorities from over 180 cities and municipalities in Belgium will send out a test message to residents of municipalities who are part of the system.
In Brussels, residents living in Auderghem, Evere, Etterbeek, Ixelles, Saint-Gilles and Uccle will receive a notification in the form of an email, a text or an audio message, according to Bruzz.
Since its launch, 18 of Brussels' 19 municipalities have joined the system, with the exception of Saint-Josse, which in June said it was working to join the system, to which 80% of Belgian cities are already connected.
Be-Alert is capable of sending out alerts that can reach a large number of citizens directly on their mobile devices, since it is has a sending capacity of 100 text messages a minute, 600 simultaneous calls and 10,000 emails per second.
Citizens who wish to sign up for alerts can do so by accessing Be-Alert's website.
Gabriela Galindo
The Brussels Times
