To that end, at the last meeting of the Mozambican cabinet, a meteorology development strategy up to 2010 was approved, that includes investment in staff training in new technologies.
Transport and Communications Minister Antonio Munguambe revealed this to reporters on Monday, during an interval in a meeting of the African Forum of Users of the Satellite Products of EUMETSAT (European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites).
Commenting on training as one of the main components of the strategy, Munguambe said that even if information is available, it will be of no use if people are not trained to interpret, decode and disseminate it.
And also "if we do not have equipment to receive and later to process, decode and disseminate this information there will be no advance", he said, adding that this is why investment is also to be made in technologies to modernise the National Meteorology Institute (INAM).
As an example of what can be done to inform communities of impending weather events, Munguambe said that, for instance, banners of different colours can be used to warn about an oncoming cyclone or any other disaster.
"A yellow banner can be given a meaning, and so can a green or red one. But for this to work, it is necessary that communities be given that information", he said.
According to Munguambe, the idea at institutional level is to create an INAM that is not inward looking, but is concerned with rendering services to the users, which calls for adequate technologies to receive information via satellite and other means.
This meeting, gathering experts involved in the mitigation of the effects of natural disasters, will allow Mozambique and other African countries to place themselves individually and collectively in a position to take advantage of services offered by agencies and organizations working in this field.
Munguambe stressed that once the country is able to use the satellite information, it will reduce the level of human and property losses to natural disasters.
SOURCE: AIM
