Six agencies operating in Uganda are partnering to launch a weather alert service expected to cut down on the number of fatal accidents associated with fishing in Lake Victoria, Africa’s largest freshwater lake.
The agencies including Uganda Department of Meteorology (UDoM), World Meteorological Organization (WMO), MTN Uganda, Ericsson, National Lake Rescue Institute (NLRI) and the Kalangala Fishing community say the localized weather alert services will be launched in the fishing villages adjacent to Lake Victoria.
The solutions, which combine mobile technology and weather forecasting, will deliver the alert messages in the local languages.
Currently on a pilot phase, the solution is being tested by over 1000 fishermen in Uganda’s Kalangala district.
The phase that involves training community representatives on the basic understanding of weather forecasts also focuses on coaching them on how to respond to various alerts.
The representatives are afterwards expected to pass the knowledge acquired to fishermen and traders who, according to Ericsson, a leading telecom provider, will be encouraged to sign up for the Mobile Weather Alert service.
MTN, Grameen Foundation AppLab Uganda and Ericsson are offering the service with UDoM, which will then be available to the entire fishing communities living near Lake Victoria in the next three months.
Ericsson, also in the partnership, said MTN Uganda, in partnership with Uganda Department of Meteorology would, upon completion of the pilot phase, deliver the mobile service for to MTN customers.
Lake Victoria is the world’s second largest freshwater lake and provides a livelihood, directly and indirectly, to over 3.5 million people. The lake supports Africa’s largest inland fishery and produces over 800,000 tons of fish annually, currently worth about US$600,000,000.
The UN estimates that, each year, over 5,000 people die on Lake Victoria due to lack of information on the weather condition.
This will help to improve access to and delivery of emergency information even to the most remote areas, say the UN.
It will also help the planning of government ministries and risk institutions to be better prepared for natural disasters, the UN adds.
Ericsson uses its expertise to direct the technology stream of the initiative as well as to explore the use of mobile communications to deliver weather information to rural communities. The WMO provides the technical advice and support to the National Meteorological Services.
