list of early warning equipment to be distributed among communities

Dear Ghulam,

While several other answers exhaustively cover equipment to assist with preparedness in the eventuality of flooding within a rural/less developed community, we thought we would compile advice from various sources that provide further context for suitable early warning systems and best practice worldwide.

[National Geographic general advice]

To begin, the National Geographic website recommends the following:

• Avoid building in a floodplain

• Move to higher ground in an emergency

• Sandbags can be used to provide temporary floodwalls in an emergency

• Devise an emergency plan which is communicated to all members of the community

• Emergency kits in the event of an evacuation

o Cell phone batteries and reusable batteries for torches

[Source: Environmental Science & Policy | Lessons from flood early warning systems | 2016, Elsevier Ltd.]

Progress is certainly being made in the development and implementation of Early Warning Systems (EWS) – this is mostly down to major technological advances and improved communication technology, which has led to better forecasting techniques and sharing of flood–related information.

However, the potential benefits of such advancements in EWS will not materialise if they do not result in emergency response action. In fact, a simple EWS may be as effective as a sophisticated one if action is taken in response to a warning. It is important to match the EWS and equipment with the response capacity of the at-risk population and set up certain institutional and social conditions to ensure action is taken.

‘Engaging local communities and authorities in the EWS design can improve the effectiveness of the whole process… local knowledge can complement scientific knowledge and measurements when data is insufficient… it can validate the forecasting models e.g. through field observations.’

In addition to this, the advice given to communities is to constantly record and collate any weather-related data. This can help develop models to help with forecasting in the future.

[Delivering Early Warning Systems for the Poorest – from flood-vulnerable to flood-resilient communities | Practical Action UK 2016]

After the devastation from flooding and landslides in Nepal between 1992-2002, Practical Action started working with flood-vulnerable communities. One piece of advice they gave is to set up a watch tower and siren. This gives communities more lead-time to gather legal documents to access post-flood relief and reach higher ground.

Early Warning Equipment (rainfall monitoring):

• For floods caused by heavy rainfall and/or poor drainage, some government stations are limited and do not record accurate data for all communities. In these instances, it is beneficial to elect and train local leaders to read community rain gauges and report to the respective National Water Agency to find patterns and release warnings.

• The leaders will require maps to aid recording and identify the relationship between waterflow patterns and households, especially vulnerable ones. Maps will also help when developing evacuation plans.

• Alongside an evacuation route, it is also important to implement an action plan strategy that includes necessary resilience-building activities. This could include skills training programmes and evacuation drills.

[The effectiveness of early warning systems for the reduction ... (more)