By Astou Jawara
The Ministry of Fisheries, Water Resources (MoFWR), also responsible for National Assembly Matters, on Tuesday, 8 February, 2022 took delivery of the donated state-of-the-art Automatic Hydrological Sensors (AHS) meant for the Department of Water Resources to better monitor and improve hydrological services in the Gambia. It’s geared towards promoting trans-boundary hydrological observation networks.
The presentation event, held at the Ministry of Higher Education in Bijilo, was attended by key players within the Ministries of Environment, Water Resources, Higher Education, and WASCAL.
The donation by West African Science Services Centre on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (WASCAL)–which fully funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research–is part of wider project earmarked for several countries within the sub-region.
The AHS would be installed at Banjul Wharf, Balingho and Nianimarou Bolong/ Nianija Bolong.
Madam Fatou Lamin Faye, WASCAL Board Member, thanked WASCAL for selecting The Gambia as one of the beneficiary countries, while expressing optimism that the data to be collected, using the equipment, would be useful to the country.
Faye, a former Minister of Basic and Secondary Education, noted that this was not the first time WASCAL has provided such assistance to the Gambia, recalling that two automatic weather stations were previously installed at Njau village in CRR, and Bakadagi in Jimara District.
“The equipment to be presented today, are in a bid to facilitate data collection, data quality assurance, data sharing and utilisation for research education, capacity building and the provision of hydrological services for the country”, Faye said.
Mr. James F.P. Gomez, Minister of Fisheries, Water Resources and National Assembly Matters expressed gratitude for the donated hydrological sensors, which he said would increase his ministry’s capacity to monitor, and the provision of quality hydrological services in the Gambia.
“I’m glad that the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that we are about to sign will establish close cooperation and collaboration between WASCAL and my ministry, through Department of Water Resources, in the field of system observation, data collection and quality assurance as well as data sharing and use for research, education, capacity building, and the provision of hydrological services”, Gomez remarked.
Professor Kehinde Olufunso Ogunjobi, Director of Research at the WASCAL Competence Centre based in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, told his Gambian audience that achieving sustainable development and climate adaptation is in increasing demand as far as weather, climate and water information to help protect lives and livelihoods are concerned.
“We really want to support our government, stakeholders and NGOs in developing services that can be used to ameliorate and reduce the impact of climate change in our environment, in our region,” he added.
Mr. Mod M.K. Secka, Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology, Mr. Omar SM Gibba, Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Water Resources, and Mr. Lamin Mai Touray, Director of Department of Water Resources, also spoke at the event, stressing the importance of collecting timely and reliable data to address the menace of climate change.
WASCAL is a leading academic and trans-disciplinary organisation building graduates level scientific capacity and serving policy-makers in West Africa with science-based advice on climate change adaptation and land use management.
