THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state capital witnessed one of the worst floods in recent years on Sunday leaving hundreds of families stranded and displaced. However, none of the weather and disaster management agencies were able to provide any accurate prediction on the extreme rain event that triggered severe urban flooding, the likes of which the city had not witnessed.
The automatic weather stations which were installed by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) to disseminate real-time data on the rainfall and temperature in Thiruvananthapuram are lying defunct and they failed to provide crucial data and warnings that could have facilitated the administration and the public to effectively mitigate the impact of the rainfall.
According to official sources, the stations have been lying defunct for the past one month due to lack of maintenance. “Both automatic weather stations in Thiruvananthapuram city limits are not functioning. It has been weeks since they are lying defunct and we have taken it up with the MET department. The data from the automatic weather station is crucial during such extreme weather events. None of the weather models could predict the extreme rainfall event that happened on Saturday night that triggered urban flooding. The automatic weather stations could have helped track this activity and locate the hotspots,” said a senior official of Kerala State Disaster Management Authority (KSDMA).
The IMD has installed 100 automatic weather stations across the state to provide weather data pertaining to rainfall, temperature, humidity and wind with accuracy. The IMD has engaged a private contractor for carrying out maintenance work of the weather stations.
“The stations encounter issues often and the contractor entrusted with their maintenance is unable to fix the issues in a time-bound manner. IMD should revise the terms of contract to speed up maintenance work, else we will miss the predictions during such a crucial juncture,” said the KSDMA official. The official added that warning alone will not help during such extreme weather events.
“We should be prepared to face the worst situation. The urban flooding occurred because of unscientific construction and unplanned developments,” the official added. An official of the MET department told TNIE that the maintenance work will begin from Wednesday.
“The equipment at automatic weather stations may develop minor or major technical glitches sometimes. The number of stations is more and the contractor has to travel all across the state to fix the issues and make them functional back again when some error happens. Both automatic weather stations will become functional immediately,” said the MET official.