Rwanda: Govt to Roll Out Flood Monitors Countrywide

Germain Nsanzimana/New Times
Flooding and landslides which have killed over 100 people on May 2 and May 3 in Western and Northern provinces affected Gihira water treatment plant in Rubavu district.
7 November 2023
The New Times (Kigali)
By Michel Nkurunziza

After Kigali City, Rwanda is planning to roll out flood monitors in other parts of the country that are prone to flooding, The New Times has learnt.

ALSO READ: 22 stations to monitor floods in Kigali City

The flood monitors are tasked with gathering crucial data on the water level and flow in rivers, drainages, and lakes.

Equipped with wave sensors, the monitors effectively communicate fluctuations in water levels.

These flood monitors are equipped with SIM cards, enabling the automatic transmission of real-time data to a central database or server which bolsters flood prediction capabilities.

ALSO READ: How Kigali's flood monitors will work

"More flood monitors will depend on budget availability. Currently, we are working on the Volcano region where the budget has now been availed," Remy Norbert Duhuze, the Manager of the Water Monitoring and Quality Control Division at the Rwanda Water Resources Board (RWB) told The New Times on November 7, 2023.

The volcanic area which covers districts of Burera, Musanze, and Nyabihu has always faced devastating floods caused by runoff water and rivers flowing from volcanoes.

ALSO READ: Multi-billion project to control floods from volcanoes launched

"The flood monitors in the volcanic region are being installed now to inform studies that are starting very soon including the establishment of an early warning system," he said.

He said there are already a few other flood sensors on River Sebeya in Western Province.

ALSO READ: River Sebeya: Govt revisits plan to evict vulnerable residents

The River Sebeya flooding in May this year killed about 150 people and left 20,000 families homeless.

ALSO READ: Death toll from disasters reaches 135, over 20,000 left homeless

Duhuze said other flood sensors have been installed on River Nyabarongo and River Akagera.

"In fact, there is a need for a good network so that we do modelling and then establish a Flood Early Warning System. If we make use of the few we have, we will be able to know water levels and flows which can help us in the design of flood management infrastructure and then determine levels of water that can cause problems," he added.

The move to roll out flood sensors countrywide to strengthen the early warning system is based on Rwanda losing over Rwf204 billion annually due to disasters, such as floods and landslides as a result of a lack of effective storm water management.

The flood sensors will update every 5 to 15 minutes and are also needed for the Muvumba, Akanyaru, Rusizi, Mukungwa rivers, among others, that are usually inundated to cause loss of lives and damage to properties.

Read the original article on New Times.

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