Students team up with river conservation group in forecasting floods

Every morning when the clock strikes 8.30, Emel Luke, a sixth standard student and his little brother Tom Dev rush to the backyard of their house at Pathampuzha, Poonjar.

Out there, they have a cylindrical rain gauge placed in a corner. The kids then take out its measuring jar, pour out the water and record the size of downpour that they received over the past 24 hours. It’s all done in a span of just five minutes as they now have to reset the system to measure the rainfall that the location will get in the coming 24 hours.

Upon returning, the kids log in to a website through a trusted user ID and upload the measures collected, adding to a series of precipitation monitoring statistics collected from different points along the Meenachil river basin in Kottayam. These kids, students of the St.Joseph’s UP School, Malayinchippara, are part of a 30 member student group that assists Meenachil River Protection Council (MRPC) in running a hi-tech flood alert system for the Meenachil.

According to Eby Immanuel, MRPC engages volunteers of all ages from upper primary school students on upto people above 70 to document the size, intensity, duration and patterns of precipitation by taking simple measurements in their own backyards. People only need a cylindrical rain gauge, some training and an interest in weather observation to participate in the program

“We are pleased that this simple home monitoring mechanism has become so popular. It’s fun, easy and takes less than five minutes a day,” he said.

As part of the initiative, the MRPC has already installed rain gauges in over 150 locations across the river basin from Vagamon to Kumarakom, besides the scales to measure the depth of the river at ten points.

“While the initial plan was to associate with the educational institutions in the region and form student support groups, the plan did not take off due to the COVID-19 crisis. But as the conservation group commenced its weather monitoring activity, several youngsters volunteered for it,” added Mr. Immanuel.

Commenting on the project, Roxy Mathew Koll, a climate scientist with the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune, said the data collected through the volunteers are being monitored by experts while the entire system is open to periodical verification by government departments or officials. “The high-density of the data collection mechanism helps remove the outliers. Over a period of time, we will be able to link up the rainfall variability with water level variability and forecast the occurrence of floods in the Meenachil,” he explained.

Meanwhile, two educational institutions – St.George College, Aruvithura and the College of Engineering, Kidangoor, have expressed interest in analysing the river monitoring data. Plans are also afoot to expand the group’s activities to other issues faced by the river such as recurring droughts and soil erosion as well.