Nigeria and other West African nations are set to adopt a new system of utilizing satellite technology in better predicting environmental patterns to help mitigate flood.
The adoption follows an initiative by African Union (AU) Leaders and the European Union, in the training of key stakeholders in the application of the technology.
The training, which opened in Abuja and is also to be held simultaneously in other West African Countries, is being conducted by the Centre for Space Science and Technology Education (CSSTE), under the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security and Africa (GMES and Africa) initiative.
Giving insights on the training and adoption of satellite imaging, Ganiyu Agbaje, Executive Director, CSSTE Consortium, said that the use of the new technology will make it easier to predict floods and locate the people who are really affected.
According to him, the training was not to teach participants how to predict but to show them how to use additional satellite data to do their prediction better and support other methods.
He said that the technology has been on for a while around the World, adding that African leaders in collaboration with the EU initiated the training to help Africa better monitor the environment and mitigate disasters.
Mr Agbaje said that with the data, rainfall, rivers and the environment will be better monitored, adding that in the case of Nigeria, more information on the activities of River Niger will be known using the technology.
“So, if we monitor River Niger across West Africa and we know what is going on, then we will know what is coming to Nigeria.
“There are five countries involved in this, we are all monitoring and using the same method to see how we can monitor flood.