A technician installing rain measurement equipment in Bình Định Province. Photo baotainguyenmoitruong.vn

BÌNH ĐỊNH – Automatic rain gauging stations have been effective in forecasting and responding to weather events in central provinces for the last five years, according to a project review.

Since 2016, the Disaster Prevention Community Fund and the Natural Disaster Control Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development have installed 20 automatic rain gauging stations for early warning of flood and rain in four central provinces of Thanh Hoá, Nghệ An, Quảng Bình and Quảng Nam.

The gauging stations have not only provided information to grassroots-level disaster prevention agencies but also contributed to making the rain measurement monitoring system stronger which helped the meteorological sector and disaster prevention agencies have more analytical data for prediction and response.

From these first achievements, the project has become one of the fund’s annual funding mobilisation projects to support the community to improve capacity for natural disaster prevention.

This month, the fund provided 110 more stations for 11 central and Central Highlands provinces of Quảng Trị, Thừa Thiên Huế, Quảng Nam, Đà Nẵng, Bình Định, Phú Yên, Ninh Thuận, Bình Thuận, Kom Tum and Đắk Nông.

The automatic rain gauging system can provide timely information on rainfall as well as warnings of excess heavy rain for the communities where the stations are located.

Local people and commune officials can track rainfall in real-time via software on smartphones or computers.

This information not only helped the commune-level disaster prevention steering committees quickly prepare response plans but also people to be proactive to avoid damage from heavy rains and floods.

Rain monitoring data from this system is seen as accurate and timely data in real-time, as well as compatible with the monitoring system of the national hydro-meteorological and the natural disaster prevention agencies.

The automatic rain gauging stations have contributed to building an early rain warning system at the local level.

Thanks to this system, both people, local authorities and natural disaster prevention agencies could easily make decisions in response to heavy rains and floods.

The data from this system has been currently linked to the data portal of the National Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control and the Việt Nam Meteorological and Hydrological Administration, making a contribution to forecasting, warning, and directing the responses to floods and rains nationwide.

During five years, the fund has mobilised nearly VNĐ15 billion (US$690,000) for the project. – VNS