A message by Hon. Robert M. Persaud, MBA, Minister of Agriculture

ON October 5, 1965 at the 50th Meeting of Cabinet, approval was given to establish a central Hydrometeorological Service within the Government Structure of the then British Guiana.
It was envisaged that the Department’s general responsibilities would be to monitor and evaluate weather and water resources in Guyana. These responsibilities grew in the early 1970s to include aeronautical forecasting, and later, agricultural meteorology, hydrological engineering and other aspects related to sustainable economic development of the country.

Mr. Ken Potter was appointed the first Chief Hydrometeorological Officer. Under his direction, the Hydrometeorological Service developed rapidly into a
well coordinated and dynamic entity with a solid core of professional personnel. Following Mr. Potter’s tenure, there has been five Chief Hydrometeorological Officers, all of whom worked tirelessly to fully establish the service.

Over the past 46 years, the Hydrometeorological Service has grown tremendously and is one of the more advanced services in the Caribbean Region, both in terms of technological advancement and human resources capacity.
I wish to highlight seven of the major achievements of the service over the last 10 years:

1)      The commissioning of the S-band Doppler Weather Radar on October 5, 2009, under a European Union funded project of which the Government of Guyana contributed over $100M. This radar replaced the older radar which became obsolete in the 1980s. Today, the radar serves as the single most
important real-time forecast tool within the service and had proven very useful in the Twenty20 World Cup and other major events held locally.
Undoubtedly, the radar constitutes a reflection of our ongoing efforts as a government and a nation to address weather and climate related issues.

2)      In 2002, the Water and Sewerage Act provided a legal framework for the Hydrometeorological Service. The act essentially made the service the national regulator for atmospheric, ground and surface water, as well as the
country’s EEZ (Ocean). The service now has the authority to institute a licensing system for well drillers, well owners and for surface water abstraction. The act also made the Hydrometeorological Service the national
repository for all weather and water related data.

3)      On May 13, 2009, the Hydrometeorological Service, in
collaboration with the National Communications Network (NCN), launched Guyana’s first national ‘modernised’ televised weather forecast, with support and funding from the UK Met Office. Today, the weather forecast is aired daily on both NCN radio and television, thus significantly improving Guyana’s
public weather information system.

4)      Since the Hydromet Service’s inception in 1965, we have always placed great emphasis on monitoring our weather, climate and water resources. In Guyana, our climatological data have been applied to enable engineering designs so that structures such as the Cricket Stadium at Providence and the
Berbice River Bridge could have been successfully completed. The service continues to expand its monitoring network and has now taken on a new challenge of establishing automated systems in our interior, where, over the years, it has been difficult to monitor manually.
The enhancement of automated hydrometeorological monitoring systems will significantly improve our country’s ability to establish early flood- warning systems for some of our most vulnerable communities across the country in the near future.

5)   With the expansion of the monitoring network, the need for adequate and proper storage of hydrometeorological data has become necessary. As a result, on August 5, 2011, the Hydrometeorological Service launched the NWIS,
which is a composite web database that allows  the integration of the service’s existing climatological and hydrological databases. Combining these two databases has allowed  the easy comparison of data and trends that can facilitate enhanced decision making and planning for the
department’s stakeholders. Selected stakeholders can now benefit from the use of Guyana’s hydrometeorological data, regardless of their location across the globe.

6)      In 2010, a 15km resolution numerical dynamical model, known as Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF), was developed over Guyana’s region, with the help of an Indian expert, and was made operational to generate real-time
forecasts up to 84 hours.

7)      In 2006, the Hydromet Service had only one forecaster, one meteorological technician trained at the World Meteorological Organization Regional Training Centre in Barbados, and only one person with an MSc.
Today, the service has 13 meteorological technicians, five hydrological technicians and eight trained forecasters who were trained at WMO training centre. We also
have currently three persons at the MSc level. In addition, telecommunication engineers and Deputy Chief Hydrometeorological positions were created to
support the current staff complement.

The Hydrometeorological Service continues to grow as a significant national institution, also successfully bearing the responsibility as national focal point for the Montreal Protocol and the Vienna Convention. The ability of our country to effectively adapt to and mitigate the impacts of climate
change is heavily dependent on the service providing quality information at the right time to decision makers. It is therefore in the interest of national development and national security that, our government continues to invest heavily in this notable institution.
I therefore wish to assure the Guyanese public that government will continue to ensure that the Hydrometeorological Service will continue to grow and contribute to national development.
Finally, I wish to congratulate the staff of the service for their continued hard work and commitment to the development of our beautiful country.