US$55 million loan approved for modernization of meteorological system

A US$55 million loan for the Republic of Venezuela – with a term of 12 years – was recently approved to partially finance the project for Modernization of the National Meteorological Measurement and Forecasting System (VENEHMET).

The executing body will be the Ministry of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (MARNR), through the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology. The funds will be used to finance investment in equipment, civil works, training and institutional reengineering in order to create the National Hydro-Meteorology Service, which will concentrate a range of isolated activities which had insufficient and dispersed technologies.

CAF President & CEO Enrique García said the operation was important because modernization of hydro-meteorological services which supply reliable information for warning of possible disasters will result in more coherent planning of productive activities, which improve economic benefits, and contribute to preserving the environment and the rational use of natural and renewable resources.

The enormous losses caused by natural disasters in the last ten years – both in human lives and economic resources – justifies investing in optimization of management, and maintenance of an Overflow and Flood Alert System, such as that planned by the VENEHMET project.

With development of the project, this service will provide a permanent systematic database of general information on 19 hydro-meteorological and oceanographic variables from around the country.

It will also generate alerts on possible flooding, droughts and storms, and guarantee their dissemination to protect lives, properties and economic activities which could be affected by these phenomena.

The system will also provide specialized weather forecasts for economic sectors exposed to losses due to meteorological causes such as land, air and sea transport; agriculture, fisheries, tourism, construction, oil industry, hydroelectric systems, among others; and record and store all the measurements to create an historical database for reference and research.

CAF is an international financial organization whose mission is to support the sustainable development of its shareholder countries and regional integration. It is formed by the five countries of the Andean Community: Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela, together with Brazil, Chile, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay and Trinidad and Tobago.