WMO: South-East Europe to strengthen regional capacity for reducing risk of 'natural' disaster
WMO press release no.857
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) are collaborating to reduce disaster risk throughout South-East Europe. A new project, supported by the European Commission, seeks to enhance risk assessment and early warning systems for weather and climate extremes through strengthened cross-border cooperation and coordination among weather and climate information providers and disaster management agencies.
The Western Balkans and Turkey face the threat of natural hazards, including floods, droughts, forest fires, earthquakes and landslides. Climate variability and change are likely to exacerbate these events, threatening to set-back economic progress in the region. As weather and climate know no political borders, cooperation across the region is required, both to harmonize legislative and institutional mechanisms for disaster risk reduction and to bolster the infrastructure and human capacity for weather, water and climate observations and forecasting.
To that end, a Regional Programme on Disaster Risk Reduction in South-East Europe has been established by the World Bank, WMO, International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) and UNDP to assist the integration of the National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs) into development and disaster management planning and preparedness activities. Progress made in this context will be reviewed by its Executive Committee at a meeting this week at WMO headquarters. The Programme will both enhance the capacity of South-East European countries to collect, process and share hydrometeorological data for developing risk assessment and multi-hazard early warning systems, and will work with various stakeholders to reduce the vulnerability of the countries to natural hazards. The Programme also aims to align these activities with the standards and policies of the European Union.
The project is aligned with WMO’s major goal to reduce the loss of life, livelihoods and property from weather-, climate- and water-related disasters. “Enhancing the capabilities of South-East European countries to plan and prepare for weather and climate extremes is critically important, especially in light of potentially increasing risks associated with droughts, floods, heatwaves caused by climate variability and change,” said Mr Michel Jarraud, WMO Secretary-General. “Integrating early warning systems, based on accurate and timely hydrometerological data, analysis and forecasts, into disaster management and response will help save lives and protect property and livelihoods.”
The project is supported through a two million Euro financing package from the European Commission’s Directorate for Enlargement, and builds on an assessment phase, recently completed by WMO, the World Bank and ISDR, with support from Finland. The objective is to develop human, technical and institutional capacity for boosting transboundary sharing of weather and climate data and information as well as for enhancing the integration of NMHSs into European Meteorological Networks.