Other information and services: www.belgium.be

Information provision to citizens

Be-Alert, 1771, WPCC, D5, social media
In the event of an emergency, the government and the emergency services can notify or inform you through various channels, e.g. BE-Alert, radio, TV, website, social media, police patrol cars, etc.

BE-Alert

In June 2017, BE-Alert was created, an alert system through which the government notifies you and gives the necessary instructions by text message, voice message or e-mail.

You can receive a message from BE-Alert in two ways. A mayor, governor or the Minister of the Interior can send an alert based on registered addresses. That is why it is very important that you subscribe to BE-Alert. You can register several addresses and phone numbers.

In the event of a major emergency, a message can also be sent out based on location. Everyone who is physically present in that area will then receive a text message. This system is unique in Belgium.

Every first Thursday of the month, cities and municipalities can test BE-Alert. Every first Thursday of the trimester, the National Crisis Center conducts a larger scale test. These tests are useful to test the procedures and the technology.

You can find all information on www.be-alert.be.

Information number

In order to deal with questions from residents, a municipality, province or the National Crisis Center can also provide an information number or call centre. To this end, they may provide their own information number or use the national emergency information number 1771.

Team D5

If a municipality, province or the National Crisis Center needs support in crisis communication, they can call on Team D5. This team consists of some 40 Dutch- and French-speaking educated and trained communication officers, with a background in crisis communication and emergency planning. The National Crisis Center is responsible for coordinating the team.

Crisis Communication Work Process

In the event of an emergency, discipline 5 is responsible for informing the public. This discipline uses the Crisis Communication Work Process, a model to structure the tasks of discipline 5 and shape the communication.