AN ELDER from Lord Howe in the outer islands of Malaita province has called on the government through its responsible ministry to consider installing relevant apparatus to help record weather situations in their islands.
Lawrence Makili made the statement during the recent three-day workshop on climate change conducted for Malaita Outer Islands (MOI).
The workshop was facilitated under Community Resilience to Climate and Disaster Risk in Solomon Islands under the Ministry of Environment, Climate Change, Disaster Management and Meteorology (MECCDMM).
Mr Makili said currently there are no data of rainfall in the islands for the last 40 or so years.
“In the past, the technology is able to record the weather situation on the outer islands,” he said.
“But this is no longer available although we now live in the digital world,” Mr Makili added.
He said the fact that there are no data on the weather situation in the islands for the last 40 years is a serious matter.
“This is because the Community Resilience to Climate and Disaster Risk Project depends on those data to come up with the right amount of resources to meet the people’s needs,” Mr Makili pointed out.
He added there should be some discussions with the Ministry responsible for the need for weather equipment to be installed on the island.
“Currently they are only using apparatus in Auki which is wrong in mathematics.
“How can you use the apparatus in Auki when looking at the distance from Auki to Ontong Java?
“You cannot depend on that data to justify the case of Ontong Java. If we depend on those data in Auki then we are working on wrong calculations.”
Mr Makili said they should have looked at data from Taro in Choiseul and Buala in Isabel because they are closer by.
Vaisala WXT530 Weather Transmitters is also part of a series of weather instruments that provides six of the most important weather parameters, which are air pressure, temperature, humidity, rainfall, wind speed and direction through various combinations.
Mr Makili said it will be better if the government installs such apparatus to help get the correct weather reports.
