By 2030, early warnings on floods and droughts to be available for all: WMO

Early warnings about floods and droughts will be available for people everywhere on the planet by 2030, according to the ‘Water Declaration’ endorsed at the ongoing World Meteorological Congress.

Policies for water and climate action developed within the sustainable development agenda will be integrated to yield maximum benefit for people, it said.

This will be achieved through partnerships for capacity development, knowledge exchange and information sharing, formulating policies, institutional and regulatory frameworks.

The Congress also endorsed the Water and Climate Coalition for promoting sharing and access to integrated hydrological, cryosphere, meteorological and climate information.

The formation of the Coalition is significant at a time when just 40 per cent of countries globally have operational early flood and drought warning systems.

Some 60 per cent of WMO member countries lack hydrological monitoring capabilities, according to the organisation. Globally, more than three billion people have no quality management system for their water-related data in place.

This means close to half of the world’s population is at risk due to a lack of information on the state of their water resources including rivers, lakes, groundwater, according to the most recent UN estimates.

The Water and Climate Coalition will be presented at the United Nations Climate Change negotiations, according to the WMO.

The 26th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (CoP26) will take place between October 31 and November 12 at Glasgow, Scotland.

Some 107 countries are not on track to have sustainably managed water resources. The Coalition is thus aimed at accelerating the progress of water-related United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, especially SDG6 (water and sanitation for all).

It aims to boost resilient water adaptation to climate change as well as demographic and socio-economic development for the future.

It follows and contributes to the new Sustainability Strategy for strengthening the Flash Flood Guidance System with Global Coverage (FFGS/WGC) approved at the World Meteorological Congress October 15, 2021.

The endorsements at the Congress are significant as more than half of the world’s population will be living under water-stressed conditions by 2030 according to the WMO and will be more vulnerable to water-related disasters especially cyclones, floods.