Understanding the status and need for anticipatory early action in lower Tana and lower Athi River Basins

In Kenya, flooding in the lower Tana and lower Athi basin causes great impacts to local communities in the Garissa, Kilifi and Tana River counties during the long and short rains.

As a way of mitigating flood risks and impacts, the Strengthening Early Response Capacity (StERC) project is focusing on improving systems for preparedness through early warning action. This is a move towards anticipatory disaster risk reduction to address the recurrent adverse impacts due to flooding in lower Tana and Athi basins.

The StERC Project will help: 

1. In building the capacity of stakeholders to co-develop and interpret early warning information that will be integrated in decision making
2. In defining forecast thresholds that will trigger different flood early actions at different lead times

From the analysis, some recommendations are made in an effort to enhance flood forecasting and anticipatory action in the two basins:

• To formalize and strengthen informal flood early warning systems (FEWS) by working with some of the technical and community members involved
• To formalize the existing communication systems within the lower Tana and lower Athi basins by integrating these systems into the flood early warning communication strategies.