The Nepali government is strengthening its flood-forecasting system within a year to disseminate reliable information to minimize the impact of floods, reported The Himalayan Times daily on Friday.
According to the report, the country lacks a reliable flood- forecasting mechanism. Though floods can be forecast effectively with the real time data of rainfall every hour, the current mechanism records rainfall once in 24 hours from 40 stations, which is inappropriate to make predictions of floods, especially flash floods that occur within some hours of rain.
Data on rainfall are circulated through post and they take days to reach the destination, while floods may occur within hours of incessant rainfall.
Keshav Prasad Sharma, deputy director general of the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology, said they have successfully tested a real time rainfall data collection system through the CDMA technique in Pokhara in western Nepal.
The system updates the rainfall data through the CDMA phone automatically to internet every hour.
"The system is cheap and feasible for Nepal. We plan to establish some stations and test the effectivity of the system there. If the stations work as expected, we will immediately set up other 80 stations, equipped with the system, throughout the nation," he was quoted by the daily as saying.
According to the report, the establishment of 100 such stations across the country can help make needed predictions.
Sharma said that after the operation of the stations, about 70 percent authentic predictions can be made.
It takes 100,000 Nepali rupees (1,538 U.S. dollars) to develop one system. The government and donor agencies have promised to help develop such systems, he said.
A reliable flood prediction mechanism can help curb death toll as people get time to prepare themselves before the floods, Sharma added.
Source: Xinhua
|
Comment
Tell A Friend
Print Format
Save Article