The Director-General of the Ghana Meteorological Agency (GMet), Dr Eric Asuman, has acknowledged that weather forecasts are not reaching the public as effectively as they should, revealing that the agency is developing a mobile alert system to improve the dissemination of weather information.
Speaking on Asempa FM’s Ekosii Sen show, Dr Asuman said GMet is working with the Ministry of Communication, Digital Technology and Innovation, the National Communications Authority (NCA) and telecommunications companies to introduce a platform that will send weather alerts directly to mobile phones.
“Communication of weather forecasts to the ordinary Ghanaian has not been as effective as it should be. However, we are working closely with the Ministry of Communication to develop a mobile application that will provide timely weather alerts and notifications to the public. We expect the app to be ready by the end of this year,” he said.
According to him, the agency has intensified public education on weather awareness by expanding the annual World Meteorological Day celebration into a month-long campaign.
“Communication on the forecasts is not too strong. That’s why we have turned the one-day celebration of World Meteorological Day on March 23 into a month-long celebration, which we call Meteorological Awareness Month,” he explained.
Dr Asuman urged Ghanaians to take weather advisories seriously and avoid dismissing forecasts simply because previous predictions did not always result in rainfall.
“The people owe it to themselves to act on any information they receive from GMet. Don’t say that whenever GMet forecasts rain it doesn’t rain, so you won’t listen to them,” he advised.
He disclosed that GMet is also introducing a Common Alerting Protocol, which will enable weather warnings to be delivered through text messages to mobile phone users nationwide.
“We also want to add text messages to forecasts for wider reach. We call it the Common Alerting Protocol so that whenever we issue an alert, everyone receives it on their phone,” he said.
Dr Asuman said the agency is awaiting the completion of technical work being undertaken by the NCA and mobile network operators to make the system operational.
“Our Minister, the Communications Minister, instructed the NCA to work on it. We have met with the NCA and they are developing a platform through which the alerts will be sent to the telecom companies,” he noted.
He indicated that the project was still under development when the recent floods occurred but expressed confidence that it would be completed before the end of the year.
“We weren’t done with it and this disaster happened. We are looking at having everything ready by the close of this year,” he added.
READ ALSO:
President declares July 10 and 11 as national general cleaning days after floods
Rachel Appoh condemns A Plus over remarks to flood victims in Gomoa Central
