Water, river gauges set up

September 11, 2013 | Filed under: Fiji News | Posted by: newsroom
By LITIA MATHEWSELL

Government has completed the installation of four new automatic river water level and rainfall gauges. This is expected to boost the country’s flood warning system, and benefit other sectors that rely on the data collected.

Permanent Secretary for Works, Transport and Public Utilities, Commander Francis Kean, said these gauges were set up at Sigatoka, Labasa, Keiyasi and Bukuya in the hinterlands of Viti Levu.

“These instruments give the Meterology Department real-time information on rainfall and water level in the rivers.

That convenience gives decision-makers ample time to send out warnings to communities if they need to evacuate in the event of a flood,’’ Commander Kean said.

“Data collected is automatically sent back to the Meterology Department and is not only beneficial for flood forecasting but useful to other Government sectors that rely on such data, such as for infrastructure, electricity, agriculture etc.,.

The gauges cost around $15,000 each and were installed by the New Zealand-based National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA).

Commander Kean said they were grateful that the 2013 budget had allocated $454,000 for hydrology.