This activity will develop integrated, adapted and sustainable basin-wide solutions to strengthen resilience to climate change at local, national and regional levels. The mission, which will be conducted in the six (06) countries of the Volta Basin, began in Burkina Faso where the team worked on 09, 10 and 11 October 2019 in Ouagadougou. It met with national and regional structures to discuss capacities and needs for flood and drought forecasting and warning systems.
The mission team exchanged views with the managers and technical executives of the National Meteorological Agency (ANAM), the ECOWAS Water Resources Management Centre (WRMC), the General Directorate of Civil Protection and the General Directorate of Water Resources, the WASCAL Research Centre, the Geological Institute of Burkina, the Permanent Secretary of the National Council for Sustainable Development (SP/CNDD), the Early Warning and Climate Information System (SAP-IC) of the Ministry of Agriculture and finally the team also met people in charge of the General Directorate for Cooperation. These structures are mainly those involved in forecasting and managing climate risks and disasters, particularly floods and drought in Burkina Faso.
The mission in Ouagadougou was composed of Ms Caroline Wittwer of WMO, Mr Enrico Ponte and Marco Massabe of the CIMA Foundation (International Centre for Environmental Monitoring), Ms Rafatou Fofana of VBA and Mr Maxime Teblekou of GWP-WA.
Discussions focused on the institutional framework, infrastructure, tools and capacities for hydrological and meteorological forecasting and warning; key flood and drought risk areas in the Volta Basin in the country; available data that can support the development of climate risk maps in the Volta Basin; programmes, projects or initiatives (completed, under implementation or in preparation) related to flood and drought forecasting and warning. The contributions of national structures in the design and implementation of a flood and drought forecasting system to be developed for the transboundary region of the Volta Basin were also discussed.
The analysis and synthesis of the information collected from the structures will provide, at the end of the exercise, a report on national capacities and needs for flood and drought forecasting and warning systems in all countries of the Basin, together with an action plan for the design and implementation of a flood and drought forecasting and warning system for the transboundary region of the Volta Basin.
The same mission will be conducted in the other countries of the basin according to the following schedule: 11 and 12 November in Mali, 13 and 14 November 2019 in Côte d'Ivoire, 25 and 26 November in Togo and 28 and 29 November in Benin. In each country, the team will meet the following structures: the Directorate in charge of hydrology and water resources, the National Meteorological Directorate, the National Water Partnership, the Directorate in charge of civil protection, the Research Institutes on water and climate change, the Institute in charge of geography, the Designated National Authority of the Adaptation Fund, the National Commission in charge of Sustainable Development.
The Project "Integrating Flood and Drought Management and Early Warning for Climate Change Adaptation in the Volta Basin" is funded by the Adaptation Fund and implemented by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) - Volta Basin Authority (VBA) - Global Water Partnership West Africa (GWP-WA) consortium.
