The Water Resources Management Authority (WRA) through Kenya Water Security and Climate Resilience Project is upgrading Early Flood Warning System Focus station in Nzoia Basin.
Speaking after receiving a delegation from the Authority who paid him a courtesy call on Wednesday, Chief Officer in the Office of Busia Governor Ezekiel Okwach said the system will be upgrading existing 10 Automatic Weather and 7 Automatic Water level stations to Telemetry in Mt Elgon, Turbo, Eldoret, Marakwet, Mumias and Butere.
He said the early warning system project is funded by Korean Trust Fund through the World Bank.
“The main aim of this system is to improve on real time data transmission for generating flood alerts,” he said.
Okwach said the County Government, WRA and other stakeholders are in collaboration to develop contingency plans for Busia, Siaya and Kakamega for disaster management.
The Chief Officer told the WRA team led by Dr Naomi Olero how the county government is dealing with hydrological disasters, noting that Disaster Management Act is operational while the regulation is being worked on.
In addition, WRA is carrying out watershed management activities through community groups (Water Resources Users Associations) to control soil erosion which results into siltation, hence flooding.
“We are also in collaboration with Kenya Red Cross and Devolution Ministry to help in times of disaster since the department has no funds in its emergency kitty,” he said.