SCALING UP THE USE OF MODERNISED CLIMATE INFORMATION AND EARLY WARNING SYSTEM
PROJECT OVERVIEW
The Government of Malawi, with the support of UNDP, secured funding from the Green Climate Fund to scale up the use of modernized early warning systems and climate information in the country. The project will work with communities in 14 food-insecure districts to co-develop tailored weather- and climate-based agricultural advisories to be disseminated through ICT/mobile, print and radio channels. The project will also scale up the best practices in community readiness to respond to disasters and mitigate key risks.
Community-based EWS will be scaled up in flood-prone areas and capacities to use and respond to warnings will be strengthened at the national, district and community levels. A key intervention related to this is to strengthen the Emergency Operation Centers, which are critical in planning for disasters, monitoring disasters, and mobilizing resources to manage them. The expansion of hydromet monitoring stations (including installation of 37 hydrological water level recording stations) and extension of existing forecasting frameworks to the central and northern regions of the country will improve flood risk monitoring, forecasting and water resource planning in the country.
Similarly, the installation of 34 Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) will extend the existing coverage to service both the hydrological forecasting and the need for localized weather data to develop the tailored agricultural advisories. Extension of the severe weather monitoring network will provide information on severe thunderstorms and rainfall for flood forecasting, as well as warnings of lightning strikes and valuable data for developing products that can be combined with existing satellite-based systems. This will enable more accurate and timely warnings for fishers over Lake Malawi as well as help forecasters to identify where high-intensity rains may fall.
