S. Sumatra installs flash-flood alarms

The Region VIII Sumatra River Zone Center (BWSS) based in Palembang, the capital of South Sumatra, has set up an early warning system at a number of rivers in the province, an official says.

"The devices are expected to start functioning soon. We are now in the finishing stage of installing them," Birenrajana, head of BWSS, said.

According to Birendrajana, the early warning devices have been installed in six major rivers in South Sumatra -- Kelingi River (in Musi Banyuasin), Lakitan (in Muara Enim), Komering (in Ogan Komering Ulu), Ogan (in Ogan Ilir), Musi (in Palembang) and Lematang (in Pagaralam) -- and will be manned by monitoring staff.

The Semanggu River in Lahat regency, Batanghari Leko in Musi Banyuasin and Rawas in Musi Rawas, will also be equipped with the same devices.

The devices will enable the BWSS office to monitor the rise and fall of water levels in the rivers, and combined with rainfall data sent by Automatic Water Level Range (AWLR) devices installed on the surface of the rivers, disasters in the event of overflowing rivers can be anticipated.

"The devices can also be used by other agencies, such as disaster response teams at the provincial and regency/mayoralty levels," Birenrajana said.

Section head of the Water Resources Network Mawardi said the AWLR devices were equipped with sensors to read rainfall and water levels and are powered by solar energy.

The AWLR devices transmit signals through global systems from mobiles to satellites, and later sends the data to a receiver at the BWSS office in Palembang. The data, indicating the water levels and rainfall, is then displayed on a board.

Besides functioning as an early warning system, data received by BWSS can be used as a basis for contingency plans.