50 CLIMATE MONITORING STATIONS FOR THE CARIFORUM COUNTRIES
During 2011, the “Center for Climate Change in the Caribbean Community” (CCCCC) received funding from the European Union under contract no. FED / 2011 / 267-392 for the implementation of an action entitled “support to the global alliance for climate change” (GCCA). One of the program’s activities was to improve climate monitoring through the acquisition of 50 automatic monitoring stations for CARIFORUM countries: Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and The Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago.
The entire lot consisted of 37 hydro-meteorological stations and 13 meteorological stations built according to the recommendations suggested by the WMO.
The CCCCC/EU-GCCA 001/12 tender, launched in July 2012, was awarded to Nesa in October and included the supply and delivery of 50 stations in 15 different countries and local training to final beneficiaries that took place in two different member states. Nesa has optimized the management of the entire contract, allowing compliance with delivery times and customer expectations.
Final acceptance and on-site training were performed in July 2013 by senior technicians in Belize and Dominican Republic. About 30 representatives of the 15 countries involved attended training activities with interest and attention, both during the “on the field” sessions (with practical demonstrations of installation and activation of some “pilot” stations) and at the premises made available by the partners premises, to learn the most theoretical and managerial aspects. Nesa technicians were therefore able to concretely demonstrate the ease of installation, maintenance and programming of the equipment supplied, also establishing valuable contacts with the main meteorological offices and the related officers.
This collaboration, particularly for some countries, continues today with the expansion and strengthening of a commercial network in Central America that allows Nesa to acquire new orders and improve existing monitoring networks or to supply new stations that respond to more modern and performing technical requirements.
