The dream of full coverage real weather data for Africa (Mauritius reporting series)

I am currently in Mauritius at the conference on water management in Africa. Far from the white and beautiful beaches and with the constant sounds of heavy rains, about 100 participants found their way to the Reduit near Moka at the Sugar research Institute. Presentations and posters are very diverse, from hydrological modeling to genetically modified maize passing through water sanitation and discussions are lively.
I have selected some presentations and posters I though where particularly interesting for my work, and the work of my colleagues. I gave the presenters a chance to summarize their research into 2-5 minutes videos I will share them with you in the upcoming weeks in the form of the"Mauritius reporting series".

For today I would like to share with you Professor Nick van de Giesen's (and his team's) dream of a full coverage real weather data for Africa. As shown in the figure on the left, Africa has a low density of weather stations, that are not functional most of the time. There is therefore very few real weather data in Africa and scientists mainly rely on remote sensing.
Nick's dream is to develop efficient robust low cost weather station in order to cover the whole of Africa, and complete/validate the current data based on remote sensing. Also he sees a great opportunity to work with schools.
See his own explanations :

Nick obviously does not work alone, he is supported by a broad team within the "Trans-African Meteorological Observatory ". Find out more about this project under :
http://www.tahmo.org/