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The Tragedy in Haiti
6 CommentsLike the rest of the world, I have been sitting in front of my television, watching in horror the reports of Haiti's devastation. I don't mean to trivialize the suffering going on in that country by injecting RFID into the discussion, when all focus should be on rescuing the victims. But as I watch the rescue efforts, I can not help but recall a conversation I had last year with a disaster relief coordinator from the United Nations. He wanted my advice regarding whether radio frequency identification could help in situations like the one in Haiti.
"The problem we have is that when a natural disaster strikes, you usually have no electrical power and little cell phone coverage in the affected area," he explained. "Relief supplies come pouring in from around the world, but when you are on the ground, you don't know what is arriving and you can't call anyone. I've seen millions of dollars worth of life-saving drugs spoil on the tarmac of an airport, because no one knew what was in the cartons and didn't distribute it."
This forward-thinking executive sought a solution. I said I thought RFID could help, if aid groups agreed on a standard for tagging relief supplies. You could use battery-powered RFID handhelds and portal readers to identify goods as they arrive. These might need to be supported by generators, and to be hardened against the harsh weather of a hurricane. Either the boxes' contents could be written to the tags, or workers could use mobile satellite communications to connect to servers outside of the stricken area, in order to determine what is arriving.
Relief workers at a base of operations in, say, New York, London or Tokyo could monitor the use of supplies and order replenishments as necessary. Goods could be identified as they are loaded onto trucks, and GPS could be utilized to track those vehicles. That would be useful for managing the distribution of drugs and other medical supplies to hospitals still functioning.
I would love to see the RFID industry step up and donate such a system to the United Nations, so that the next time there is a disaster, relief workers on the ground could do a more effective job of getting supplies to those who need them. These workers operate a supply chain under the most difficult circumstances imaginable, and RFID could make it work better for the victims of a disaster.
Mark Roberti is the founder and editor ofRFID Journal . If you would like to comment on this article, click on the link below. To read more of Mark's opinions, visit the RFID Journal Blog or click here.
"The problem we have is that when a natural disaster strikes, you usually have no electrical power and little cell phone coverage in the affected area," he explained. "Relief supplies come pouring in from around the world, but when you are on the ground, you don't know what is arriving and you can't call anyone. I've seen millions of dollars worth of life-saving drugs spoil on the tarmac of an airport, because no one knew what was in the cartons and didn't distribute it."
This forward-thinking executive sought a solution. I said I thought RFID could help, if aid groups agreed on a standard for tagging relief supplies. You could use battery-powered RFID handhelds and portal readers to identify goods as they arrive. These might need to be supported by generators, and to be hardened against the harsh weather of a hurricane. Either the boxes' contents could be written to the tags, or workers could use mobile satellite communications to connect to servers outside of the stricken area, in order to determine what is arriving.
I would love to see the RFID industry step up and donate such a system to the United Nations, so that the next time there is a disaster, relief workers on the ground could do a more effective job of getting supplies to those who need them. These workers operate a supply chain under the most difficult circumstances imaginable, and RFID could make it work better for the victims of a disaster.
Mark Roberti is the founder and editor of
READERS' COMMENTS
Senior Director, Communications, Savi Group
I couldn't agree more with Mark's comments about using RFID and related Auto ID technologies to track relief supplies into devastated areas such as Haiti. In fact, active RFID is being used by the DoD and SDDC now to track humanitarian supplies they are shipping from the United States into staging areas in Haiti. However, this is just the DoD for now. Even greater visibility and collaboration could be achieved if all disaster relief groups used standards-based RFID, both passive and active, from points of origin to final destinations where disaster victims need everything from vaccines to food and water. Mark Nelson Savi Group, a Lockheed Martin Company mnelson@savi.com
Posted By: Mark Nelson 1/20/10 at 9:56 PM
Problems in Haiti
Last night, Anderson Cooper spent a lot of his show discussing the problems getting relief supplies to those who need. Stuff is sitting on the tarmac. It's not always known what has arrived and there is no way to prioritized its movement. The key, as Mark Nelson, says is agreeing on standards and then having everything coming into a devastated area tagged. I wish we as an industry could solve before the next natural disaster.
Posted By: Mark Roberti 1/21/10 at 7:20 AM
It's about the Money
This is a sterling idea. The DoD already has the technology in their supply chain to manage logistics deployments into the field. They have the C3 platform (Command, Communication and Control) to pull this off. The challenge with most disasters and this is being borne out in Haiti is there is no single C3 structure in place to mange the process. You have everyone from Doctors without Borders, the American Red Cross, to the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines showing up to help. One airport, a single runway and not enough concrete. No air traffic control until the US Air Force showed up and set one up. It's a disaster of epic proportions especially for the infrastructure involved. There's no comm, no power, no clean water and virtually no roads and trucks to move the relief supplies. The way to get this done, and it should be, is to have the DoD and some other select relief agencies (American Red Cross for one) to put together a roll off the deck (out the back of a C-17 or C-130) C3 system to manage the whole process involved. RFID could and should be a component since it would lend itself to helping relief specialists identify critical medical and relief supplies and move those items front and center. In a disaster the first 96 hours is key to survivability. We're going on over 8 days now and there is no end to those who are suffering and dying. It is truly hard to watch and absorb. Perhaps some firms who have significant presence with the DoD could broach this subject with them to see how something like this could get done. Regardless it with be the USA that organizes it since we have the ability to respond in near real-time anywhere in the world to disasters such as Haiti.
Posted By: Bill James 1/21/10 at 10:24 AM
Barriers to RFID integration into disaster response policy
There are several institutional and technological barriers to wider use of wireless RFID network technology in governments and to the integration of this technology as an integral component of effective government disaster response policy. Institutional barriers include privacy concerns and perceived risk held among citizens and academic researchers about government adoption of RFID.... Please read this paper about disaster management: http://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1744&context=infopapers
Posted By: Sam Sam 1/22/10 at 12:50 AM
E-Government Challenge in Disaster Evacuation Response: The Role of RFID Technology in Building Safe and Secure Local Communities
Please find below a good article on the topic: http://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1744&context=infopapers
Posted By: Samuel Fosso Wamba 1/22/10 at 2:23 AM
Oversimplification of the Problem
While I agree with the underlying premise that automated tracking of material would be tremendously beneficial to addressing major relief effots such as these, I think we are getting technology way ahead of process. Anyone who has spent a significant amount of the time knows that there are always challenges with how information is created, presented and transported when there are such a diverse set of participants in this supply effort. A simple example is water. Is it suitable for cleaning, drinking, operating rooms? Does the red-cross describe it the same way as the Coast Guard and do they do it the same way as the Army? Who is in charge of distribution and what is the command and control mechanism to direct the distribution? The technology is mature enough, but the coordination, command protocols and process development are an extremely far cry from being mature. It is not for lack of effot, it is simply an extremely complex crisis environment.
Posted By: Steven Georgevitch 1/25/10 at 8:39 AM