BluePrint: Nepal Specifications

Introduction

This is a SAMBRO specific deployment customized implementation for the Nepal context. The ​Department Of Hydrology and Meteorology(DHM) is the principal implementer working in partnership with the ​National Emergency Operation Center (NEOC). Initially, the plan was that DHM will lead the implementation and host the SAMBRO multi-agency situational-awareness platform until such time NEOC builds capacity to take over.

Stakeholders

The stakeholders listed will be involved in the implementation.

Organization	Roles and Responsibilities
​Department Of Hydrology and Meteorology (DHM)	Take the initial lead to disseminate the flood warnings
​National Emergency Operation Center (NEOC)	Build the capacity to take over the system and issue warnings for various events

Implementation benefits and expect outcomes

The initial implementation is a component of the Nepal Flood Resilience Project (NFRP). It was supported by Practical Action of Nepal. They belong to the Global Flood Resilience Programme (GFRP). The major objectives for this first level CAP implementation in Nepal were to:

• Implementing SAMBRO that is based on the CAP v 1.2
• Enable the dissemination of warnings using several media channels: Email, Twitter, SMS, and Facebook. This has been a major issue with DHM, where they are using the manual method to disseminate warnings across phone, and Twitter.
• Activate CAP RSS feed for other CAP aggregators like Google Public Alerting and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Alert Hub to make use of the warnings.
• Develop the software operations capacity of DHM and NEOC system administrator.
• Build DHM and NEOC capacity to use SAMBRO and adopt the CAP messaging standard.
• Sharing alerts allows Nepal to integrate sharing messages across borders as well as with ports authorities; and hence to convey reliable and accurate information.

User Stories

The Department of Hydrology and Meteorology (DHM) has been long working with various organizations across the world to apply modern science and technology to strengthen the early warning systems and processes. Mandated by the Ministry of Population and Environment, DHM is responsible for the monitoring, prediction and dissemination of early warning information of meteorological and hydrological events. Heavy Rainfall, Drought, River Flood, Landslide, Thunderbolt and Earthquake are major hazards that threaten Nepal every year. The nation is always in the news every year with meteorological and hydrological events harming lives and livelihoods.

Challenges

• One of the major challenges for DHM was to acquire a server for SAMBRO. Even though the initial implementation was supported by Practical Action, the lack of budget especially for getting a new server was prevalent. The alternative was to use one of the servers from another project at DHM, and clearly, that was not sustainable. One server was used, SAMBRO was installed but then they asked to format the server.
• With the new constitution in place, the administrative boundaries have gone major changes, along with different government agencies. It might take a while before they are crystal clear about the line organization in the government.
• Lack of necessary technical capacity to operate SAMBRO was prevalent from training. But different local private organization were invited to take over the maintenance task for DHM.

Recommendations for step forward

• The major recommendation is to acquire a server to host the SAMBRO.
• With the new policy in Nepal, DHM can now acquire SMS gateway from telecom provider. A first level meeting was also conducted with Nepal Telecom regarding obtaining SMS gateway, for which they are quite interested to help.
• Organize a Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) / Disaster Risk Management (DRM) decision and policy-maker stakeholder meeting, including members from Ministry Of Home Affairs (MOHA), to showcase SAMBRO’s potential and share the knowledge from the DHM implementation and operationalization experience.
• Formulate a CAP Working Group.
• Collaborate with the Stakeholder Organizations, to iteratively, design, implement, and test, SAMBRO to serve the Stakeholders’ needs.
• Conduct a set of controlled-exercises, with the Stakeholder Organizations, to evaluate their readiness to integrate SAMBRO into their warning practices