Development of community-based flood early warning system in the Lower Shire of Malawi using low-cost technologies

Context and background: The devastating and destructive nature of floods has led to so many initiatives globally, nationally even at a community level. This has necessitated implementing early warning systems (EWS) to alert the affected communities of impending floods. The difference with these early warning systems lies in the systems' implementing cost; how complex the system is; methods devised in processing of information and alerting; and the lead times to alerting affected communities. At a community level, early warning systems are set just to alert without records keeping capability of flood occurrences, the extent of flood coverage, and a prediction function of an impending flood. Goal and Objectives: This work demonstrates the design, development, and implementation of a low-cost community-based flood early warning system that addresses shortfalls of most community-based early warning systems in Malawi. Apart from sending alert messages only through SMSs and emails, the EWS for floods also incorporated a database enhancing its capability to keep records of the fluctuation of river levels and precipitation within the area of interest. Methodology: The involvement of local communities has been accommodated in the design and development of the system. Thus the local community had an input on how they would like to have the system implemented, managed, and run. Locally available materials (Arduino-related products) were used as system hardware parts. The Twilio platform was used for communicating alert messages since it can simultaneously send messages to several people. A prototype has been developed incorporating the views of the affected communities. Results: The prototype demonstrates the ability of using low-cost materials in developing community-based floods early warning systems which can be used in warning communities in time of impending danger. This in turn will help in saving lives and goods. Therefore, for an effective and efficient way of alerting concerned communities, community-based flood early warning systems (CBFEWS) must be installed at major points in all rivers that flood. This will give communities ample lead time to evacuate.