Challenges of collecting raindrops and data in Africa

Measuring and modelling complex water resources systems are among the main interests of Nick van de Giesen , teacher and ‘Van Kuffeler Chair’ of Water Resources Management of the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences at TU Delft. ‘To have the same density of weather stations in Africa as in the Netherlands, you would need 20,000 weather stations. I would say if we can reach 2,000 that would already be great.’ Currently TAHMO has installed 600 stations in over twenty countries.

Engagement through hackathons and school projects

‘From the start, we wanted it to be a project that would be locally borne,’ says Van de Giesen. ‘So one of the first questions was how to find the right people. At the start we organised a lot of hackathons. For example we had a competition organised by TU Delft, to design a weather sensor without moving parts.’ A weather station in Africa needs to be sturdy and should not be too expensive. ‘We got over forty ideas and selected around twenty for the second round. We sent these contestants a box with materials. People built their ideas and made video recordings of it. In the last round twelve people could come to Nairobi and build their station. That was a lot of fun. Six of these people are still involved, they’ve been with us for years now.’

Another way was connecting with governments and schools locally. Van de Giesen: ‘We didn’t want to barge in like strangers. We always come through the front door.’ As a result, ninety percent of the weather stations are located at schools, mainly senior high schools. ‘For multiple reasons this is a good thing: it benefits education, creates awareness and schools are usually a safe place for the weather stations. It’s not only giving, you get a lot. ‘The citizen science part is the collaboration with the schools, the students and the teachers. An involved TUD-student helped with curriculum development in Ghana. We learned a lot from that and can still learn a lot more. Every country has their own curriculum, and differences in the school system. It’s not “one size fits all” you have to adjust it for every country.’

Cultural sensitivity

While TAHMO is starting to cover the continent, some countries are still hard to reach. ‘Congo (DRC), for example. It’s hard to operate there. They don’t worry that much yet about climate change and how it will influence the economy.’ When it comes to working together as partners, cultural sensitivity is important. ‘Be aware of the fact that Africa is an extremely diverse place. A Kenyan and a Ghanaian are not the same, just like an Italian and a German are not the same and have different cultural practises and modus operandi.’

Van de Giesen meets the international team on a monthly basis. ‘We’ve got one data person from the Netherlands, but it’s really an African effort. That’s the main thing I’m proud of at the moment. Everywhere where we have someone on the ground, things are okay and things are moving forward. As soon as we have third parties or people we don’t know, then we get into the trouble.’

Challenges: money and maintenance

The biggest challenge at the moment is generating a sustainable income. Van de Giesen: ‘We’re quite good at projects and getting project based funding from the World Bank or other investors. But to get to the next level, we need to create a constant income stream based on a business model or a service model.’ An apparently contradictory fact is that hundreds of millions are being pumped into weather observations in Africa. ‘Most of that money stays in the economy of home countries, crumbs are left for the African countries. We want to create a scenario in which the local community benefits.’

Once the income stream is covered, the first step would be to improve the quality of the equipment and hence the data. Right now it’s hard to tell when the stations needs maintenance, explains Van de Giesen. ‘We would love to get a solid quality assessment and control system in place and implement a proactive maintenance programme. Right now the quality level is about 80%. But to reach even 90%, the costs would probably double.’

The whole idea that measuring things benefits your economic and socio-economic development is not as much adopted culturally. Although the schools with a weather station have access to their data and people at the meteorological services are definitely profiting, it depends very much on the country how much it is used. Van de Giesen: ‘We are moving towards an operational project where the data is part of the information flow for agriculture or hydro power or flood warning systems, but it’s a slow process. It’s all about creating value and engaging people in a meaningful way.’