Ministry hands over flood early warning equipment

The Ministry of Works and Housing has handed over equipment to four institutions implementing the Accra Flood Early Warning System (FEWS) project.

The beneficiary institutions are the Ghana Hydrological Authority, Ghana Meteorological Agency, National Disaster Management Organisation and Water Resources Commission.

The $7 million state-of-the-art equipment included ultrasonic water level sensors, velocity radar sensors with cameras and acoustic doppler current profiler which would collect and transmit water levels and runoff volumes.

Others are tipping bucket rain gauges, automatic weather stations which will collect and transmit the amount and intensity of rainfall, temperature, humidity and other meteorological parameters.

The rest are information technology (IT) equipment to support in the coordination and dissemination of information and data under the project. 

A number of the equipment are to be installed in some selected communities across the Greater Accra Region.

Security of equipment

The Minister of Works and Housing, Francis Asenso-Boakye, said the procurement and installation of the equipment marked the first step in the journey towards a safer, more resilient Greater Accra Region.

He said the ministry was also in the process of engaging a service provider to set up a flood early warning system platform and operationalise the system for three years.

The service provider would be required to also maintain the equipment and overall system in addition to training nominated staff of the four institutions for sustainable operations and maintenance of the system after the closure of the contract of the service provider.

He said the equipment had been procured at a great cost to the nation and urged all, including residents of communities where they would be installed, to protect them from being vandalised or stolen.

“There is also collaboration with the institutions involved in the project and Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies in whose jurisdiction the equipment will be installed to put in protective measures.

‘Additionally, discussions have been initiated with the assembly members and communities hosting the equipment to ensure the security of the equipment”, he said. 

How the system works

Demonstrating how the system will work, the FEWS Technical Lead for GARID project, Dr Mawuli Lumor, said the system covered the Greater Accra Region — from “Kasoa to Ada —and would help protect the citizenry”.

He said high-risk communities would have the opportunity to monitor the possible occurrence of floods online through the “My Flood App” developed by the GMeT which was available on Play store for free download.

He said through the system, data could be transmitted to a platform which could simulate the immediate and future scenarios, estimate the probability of flooding in specific communities, ahead of the possible occurrence of floods.

The system, he said, could also issue advanced alerts to residents in specific at-risk communities which could grant them time ahead of imminent floods to secure their valuables and evacuate to safer locations.

“There is the need for collective policing of the equipment.

The equipment have GPS for tracing and so apart from the fact that anyone who steals them cannot use them, we can also easily trace them,” he said after warning criminals with intentions of destroying or stealing the gadgets.