In the first half of November 2020, Hurricanes Eta and Iota brought weeks of incessant rain, washing out bridges, toppling power lines and wrecking crops in Belize. These two extreme hurricanes are signs of climate change exacerbating regular weather cycles. Hurricanes have played key and devastating roles in Belize due to a lack of disaster prevention and relief techniques in the country. However, the TaiwanICDF has implemented the Belize Urban Resilience and Disaster Prevention Project since 2019 to enhance disaster prevention capabilities. After the project introduced disaster mitigation technologies, the flood warning time increased by about three hours, allowing sufficient time for Belizeans to evacuate and reducing the loss of life and property.

The Belize Urban Resilience and Disaster Prevention Project jointly promoted by the TaiwanICDF and Belize is the first time that Taiwan has introduced disaster prevention technology into an aid project. The goal is to establish early warning mechanisms for flooding, and enhance the technical capabilities of Belizean disaster prevention and relief units. To assess the effectiveness of the project, the Taiwan Technical Mission in Belize used Hurricane Eta as a stress test. Hurricane Eta caused incessant rain for three days and brought more than 150 mm of rainfall per day in the mountainous areas, causing river levels to rise, reservoir sedimentation and flushing. In the past, rainfalls of the same scale have been reported as severe disasters. However, San Ignacio, the city where the project was implemented, only suffered minor losses due to hydrological and meteorological monitoring stations. Through Internet of Things (IoT), data from sensors are sent to the flood warning system in real time. This helps the Belize Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Forestry, the Environment and Sustainable Development use visual charts to grasp the data, and automatically issue a warning when the water level rises above the warning level.

Taiwan's extensive disaster prevention technology capabilities are demonstrated through the tests of several recent hurricanes, and verification that the flooding potential data of Belize surveyed by the TaiwanICDF is fully consistent with the actual flooded area. The TaiwanICDF will continue to assist Belize to implement the Sustainable Development Goals, and work together to build resilient communities and adapt to the environment and climate change.

Related Pictures

no:1picture

• Update: 2020/12/25
• Hits:594