LocationsNew Automatic Weather Station to enhance Palau's climate monitoring capacities
June 3, 2022
Representatives at the Palau Weather Station
Koror, Palau – The Automatic Weather Station (AWS) was officially commissioned on 15th April to the Palau National Weather Service Office (NWSO) under the UN Development Programme (UNDP) Enhancing Disaster and Climate Resilience (EDCR) project funded by the Government of Japan. The AWS will support NWSO’s capacity in enhancing Palau’s climate monitoring system and improving its resilience to climate-related hazards.
With the technical support from the New Zealand’s National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Limited (NIWA), UNDP procured four AWS, which will complement the capacities to monitor weather conditions and provide real-time data, including wind speed and direction measurements, air temperature, humidity, solar radiation, rainfall intensity, and more. The data will support local weather forecasting services, which are a key element of Palau’s resilience to natural disasters.
The official commissioning and handover of the AWS installed in Airai was witnessed by the Hon. Charles Obichang, Minister for Public Infrastructure and Industries, His Excellency Mr. Karasawa Akira, Ambassador of Japan to Palau and Levan Bouadze, Resident Representative for UNDP Pacific Office based in Suva, Fiji.
His Excellency Ambassador Mr. Karasawa Akira, appreciated the partnership with UNDP and the Government of Palau and stated, “I understand that the ability to predict natural disasters, including tsunamis and typhoons, is of vital importance to ensure the life, safety, and property of the people. In this sense, AWS is a quite significant facility for predicting natural disasters."
(L-R) Levan Bouadze, Resident Representative for UNDP Pacific Office in Fiji, His Excellency Mr. Karasawa Akira, Ambassador of Japan to Palau and Hon. Charles Obichang, Minister for Public Infrastructure and Industries, Government of Palau.
In his remarks during the ceremony, Mr. Bouadze expressed his appreciation to the Government of Japan for their generous support, which enables UNDP to work with the Government of Palau on the enhancement of the country’s resilience platform to withstand the impact of disasters, climate change, recovery and the Sustainable Development Goals.
Ms. Maria Ngemaes, Meteorologist-in-Charge, NWSO said, “Through this first installation, NWSO staff were guided by NIWA to install AWS by themselves as this is the first time to conduct installation without technical experts from abroad. With this experience, NWSO is confident to install three more AWS and with improved capacities to install more AWS from future funded projects at sites in key strategic and vulnerable locations according to WMO guidelines.”
This activity has been made possible by UNDP through the 'Enhancing Disaster and Climate Resilience in the Republic of Palau through the Improved Disaster Preparedness and Infrastructure' project funded by the Government of Japan.
The project, since its commencement in 2019, has provided equipment strategic to Palau’s disaster risk management. It aims to strengthen gender sensitive disaster communication and climate monitoring systems; enhance gender sensitive national and state disaster responder’s readiness capacity; and enhance community disaster resilience through improved water resource management and integrated gender and social inclusion awareness.
Contact information
Paula Cirikiyasawa, Country Project Coordinator, EDCR Project in Palau, UNDP Pacific Office; tel: +(691) 320 4456; email: paula.cirikiyasawa@undp.org
