Saboria is a small village in the Aileu District. As in many other villages in the country of Timor-Leste, Saboria suffers regularly from floods that distress the livelihood of its inhabitants for years. In these dreadful events, livestock and assets are frequently lost, affecting and devastating the subsistence of Saboria farming families.

Similie was challenged by Plan International Timor-Leste to implement an Early Warning System (EWS) for the benefit of the communities of Saboria. This project harnessed the power of the internet to link lasers that monitor water-level to the Similie cloud-based EWS platform and an SMS alert system to notify registered farmers from Saboria.

Following Similie’s approach, the technology team took innovation to the next level to create and deliver this product, while the field tech team engaged the community and designed a customised training programme.

The Nazareth Foundation, a commercial partner in this project, made its contribution by providing skilled tradespeople to manufacture the flood alert system housing, for secure installation in rivers.

This Early Warning System project has shown how emerging technologies can positively impact on disaster risk reduction for communities and their subsistence and enhance the resilience of communities to flash flood events.