Alternatives to a fax for crisis communications.

Ok, this is a typical Belgian story but please try to understand, we're a small country and federalised...

Here's the short version; on December 21 a chemical company called Floridienne Chemie accidentally drops between 300 and 600 kg of zinc-chloride in the Dender, a river which runs both through Flanders and Wallonia.

What happens next is rather unbelievable but still....

As the origin of this environmental accident lies in the Walloon part of the country the local government instance there has the responsibility to warn the other instances down river, in this case the Flemish government.

The whole procedure for this type of crisis situation is known by all involved, it is written down and it is followed... It clearly states that a FAX (!) should be send to warn the other instances...!

And of course we all know how a fax works these days.... So in this specific scenario the warning fax never came through because of an electricity failure on the Flemish side.

Apart from the fact that both responsible environmental ministers, Philippe Henry (Ecolo) & Joke Schauvliege (CD&V) played a shameful and childish blame game for about a week, it is also incredible to find out that a crisis procedure is based on sending a fax !

Here are some tips in case they both take their "communications audit" serious enough this time:

• Never, ever rely on just one means of alert... Use a cascading system where you would use the phone first, SMS second, email next etc.... I would not even include a fax or, if needed, I would fax through the internet.
• Always use a control system - you need to be certain the message or alert arrived. By phone it is quite obvious but also with SMS and email you can get a response saying the message was delivered. Even better is to agree on a "confirm receipt" sign from the other side.
• Be prepared for electricity and/or internet failures - always have "runners", people who are able to physically carry a message to others, integrated into your plan.

Several governments, even smaller local entities, use well known industrial messaging systems which have already proven their effectiveness. Of course business continuity and crisis management is serious stuff and should be handled by certified professionals.. but there is no excuse these days not to use a standardised system.

At the same time, crisis preparedness is a state of mind and a "culture" and I am not so certain that even with the finest systems in place our federalised entities and their ministers would be able to manage another crisis.

We've seen it before - when the system works they suddenly don't understand the language spoken on the "other side". Another case for having civil servants who speak the 3 national languages, but that in itself is considered a "crisis prone" discussion in my little country.

At the end of the day in this specific story, the environment and the Belgian taxpayers have lost here, and that's a pity...