HKV lijn in water heeft dit gerepost
Dire Dawa is one of Ethiopia's bigger cities, with around 400.000 citizens. The city is a typical example for many African cities that are expanding at high rate. When it rains heavily, streets become rivers because the drainage system is not designed for the large paved area the city covers nowadays. Also, drains are broken or blocked due to siltation and accumulated waste (see photo's). This happens almost yearly, and you can see that people are somehow used to that, their doors are build about half a meter above street level (see photo). Besides that, the river Detachu is crossing the city, which is most of the time entirely dry (see photo). As it is well located in the centre of the city, it has become the location for an informal market place (see photo). When rain falls up in the mountains, those living there will call the city officers to warn for the coming water. The people in the market then have some hours to move their belongings, people living in the houses near the river move to houses of family members. In 2006 it rained for only two hours and over 4 metres of water flowed through the river. This happened during nighttime, it took the city by surprise and over 240 people died and about 10k people were displaced. A flood wall was build after 2006, but this protects only part of the city and only from the river floods (see photo). More is needed, such as improving the city's drainage system, better waste collection and flood defences. In the meantime, better forecasts of rainfall and floods can provide early warning to give people time to protect themselves and their belongings. This will help to reduce the losses and damages from floods. It is especially for this type of floods that we sat together as HKV lijn in water, Deltares, TAHMO_World and the 510 - The Netherlands Red Cross' Data & Digital team and ICPAC to join forces a bit more than a year ago. #EarlyWarning for #UrbanFloods, with only a few hours of lead time, require accurate rainfall and flood forecasts, fast warning dissemination and a clear understanding from officials and citizens on what can be done in only a few hours time. Using EUMETSAT rainfall information is in Africa often the only source of near-realtime spatial rainfall information in areas where no ground radars are placed. Funded by the Netherlands Enterprise Agency with their Partners for Water program, we are building an early warning system for Dire Dawa, based on this information. After Dire Dawa, there are many other cities in Africa in need of similar systems. This is our way of contributing to the global #EarlyWarningForAll ambition. Last week was the kick-off for this project, together with the responsible Ethiopian government institutions. Now it is time to finally get started, looking forward to that with our entire team: Jerom Aerts, Aklilu Dinkneh Teklesadik, Ruben Imhoff, Martijn Kwant, Mohammed Yasir Abbas, Frank Annor, Modathir Zaroug, Anthony Mwanth and Jully O..
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