Secured Water Monitoring
with Radar Technology
The Water Resources Authority (WRA) is rolling out a new technology to monitor surface water at our island’s monitoring stations.
Peter Clarke, Deputy Managing Director at the WRA says over the years, the Authority has lost numerous monitoring equipment and stations due to heavy rains and floods.
“The current monitoring stations are designed to be in close proximity to the water to the point where the monitoring mechanism has to come into contact with the water. If there is a serious flood it can be damaged or destroyed” he said.
Mr. Clarke says the Authority has started retrofitting 18 stations by installing radar and real time technology.
“We are going now to a new mechanism which uses radar. It doesn’t need to touch the water, it is more secure and safer in a flood event”.
The WRA Deputy Head said they are supporting the radar technology with real-time technology.
“Right now, we can go on our computer or smart phones, bring up our website and monitor our stations’ river flow levels. The system is updated every 5 minutes and also sends a text message to warn users about potential dangers”.
New Monitoring Station to be Built in Yallahs
The Yallahs River and Hope River watersheds have and will benefit from this injection of new and sustainable technology.
The Hope Station at Grove along Gordon Town road on the Hope rRiver was the first of the 35 stations to be retrofitted/constructed with enhanced technology to report in 'real-time'.
The Yallahs basin will, Mr. Clarke asserts also see a new addition to its monitoring capacity.
“The Yallahs River is a critical river for Kingston because it feeds water into the Mona reservoir through the Mona pipeline. We’ve lost the Yallahs contact equipment numerous times. The WRA has plans to build 12 new radar –operated monitoring stations across the island and one of the first to be built will be in Yallahs”. Clarke assures.