Four years after it was commissioned and innumerable bouts of severe weather later, the $550 million Doppler Radar project intended to provide up-to-the-minute weather reports isn’t doing so leaving some to conclude that the European Union and Guyana-funded project is a failure in that respect.
Commissioned since October 2009, the up-to-the minute aspect of the Doppler is yet to be utilized by various stakeholders. Severe weather warnings can give stakeholders valuable time to prepare as in the case of yesterday’s flash flooding. Yesterday’s heavy downpours caught tens of thousands of residents unawares.
Although the Doppler process is partially available via the HydroMet Services website, the vast majority of the Guyanese populace is not privy to what exactly the Doppler is reading. The website, www.hydromet.gov.gy, itself is complicated to navigate and seemingly requires some knowledge of how to read radar imaging, that is if the site decides to