Dear All,
Thank you to everybody that contributed to the discussion on Early Warning Systems (EWS): it was very interesting to see the practices that are working effectively in different regions, and to see which methods from the Latin America case studies might be adapted to your local contexts. For those of you that did not have a chance to take part, or any of you that would like to add any further analysis, please use this space to do so.
The majority of participants shared with us that they do not have fully effective EWSs in their cities. However, even in those cases, participants spoke of national meteorological departments monitoring weather, media houses disseminating information and local communities creating informal warnings. From the comments that participants shared, countries that fell into this category included: Ghana, India, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, Vietnam and Zimbabwe. As our participants reside in different cities in these countries, we did see that the city of Chennai (India) the city of Cape Town (South Africa) do have city level EWSs. Also there was mention of Harare (Zimbabwe) having a fragmented EWS.
Although this question was not posed, many participants spoke of National EWSs, it would seem that the following countries have national systems: Ghana, Jamaica, South Africa, Nepal, Saint Lucia and Zimbabwe.
Most participants were following the examples of the Latin American case studies and looking at sudden-onset climate related events such as cyclones, heavy rains, flooding, landslides etc. Although two participants spoke of EWSs for cholera; it seems that both Uganda and Zambia have effective EWSs for this. We did not share cases from Latin America on EWSs on illnesses, the incidence of which might potentially increase with climatic changes. There are however many EWSs for out breaks of dengue and other vector-borne illness in Latin America and we would be happy to do some more research into that for anyone that is interested.
The cities that we saw with valuable EWSs in place included Cape Town (South Africa), Chennai (India), Dhaka (Bangladesh) and Montevideo (Uruguay). These cases shared several innovative approaches. In Cape Town we saw the use of CCTV, in Montevideo we saw the use of targeted text-messaging to community members in the most vulnerable areas, in Dhaka we saw the use of an Interactive Voice Response System – where subscribers can call and hear up-to-date warning messages. The posts from select participants that shared information on these systems can be found attached to this post, in case you missed them.
Most participants shared that the monitoring component of EWS in their cities/countries was carried out by the national meteorological department. Information was largely said to be disseminated by the media, namely television, radio and newspapers. In emergency situations this is complemented by sirens, loud speakers, and phones. The majority felt that communication and dissemination of information is severely lacking in their cities. In the case that national meteorological departments warn of coming extreme weather, does this really mean anything to an unprepared population? Especially for members of the population that do not have televisions, or where illiteracy rates are high. Are people genuinely looking out for these warnings? Plus, even if the warnings reach them, how will they know what to do, and where to go? Participants felt that the training offered by the Civil Defence in Rio de Janeiro would be very useful in their local circumstances.
Many participants mentioned that they felt that the use of radio, mobile phones and the Internet, as in the Latin American case studies, might be successfully adapted for early warnings in their communities. We saw there are barriers to the effectiveness of such media according to local circumstances. In countries such as Ghana, there is 100% saturation of the mobile phone market, thus the use of SMS might be very effective; but in other countries in many people remain unconnected. In Zimbabwe we heard that the radio is seen as a male possession that roams with men where they go, thus potentially leaving women and children no better warned of imminent disasters.
The major challenges that were listed, for improving local EWSs, included many of our usual suspects:
- Lack of government commitment
- Lack of funding
- Lack of coordination between actors
- Lack of modern monitoring technology
- Lack of local capacity
- High illiteracy and poverty among most affected
We did see this week, that it is not only formal warning systems with a heavy technology base that can have a significant impact on warning local communities of coming disasters. Community level responses are extremely valuable. The discussion for Week 8, which just started, is looking specifically at that: how communities can be capacitated and work together to reduce disaster risk.
Charlotte Heffer
Moderator
ELLA Learning Alliance on Climate Resilient Cities
Thank you to everybody that contributed to the discussion on Early Warning Systems (EWS): it was very interesting to see the practices that are working effectively in different regions, and to see which methods from the Latin America case studies might be adapted to your local contexts. For those of you that did not have a chance to take part, or any of you that would like to add any further analysis, please use this space to do so.
The majority of participants shared with us that they do not have fully effective EWSs in their cities. However, even in those cases, participants spoke of national meteorological departments monitoring weather, media houses disseminating information and local communities creating informal warnings. From the comments that participants shared, countries that fell into this category included: Ghana, India, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, Vietnam and Zimbabwe. As our participants reside in different cities in these countries, we did see that the city of Chennai (India) the city of Cape Town (South Africa) do have city level EWSs. Also there was mention of Harare (Zimbabwe) having a fragmented EWS.
Although this question was not posed, many participants spoke of National EWSs, it would seem that the following countries have national systems: Ghana, Jamaica, South Africa, Nepal, Saint Lucia and Zimbabwe.
Most participants were following the examples of the Latin American case studies and looking at sudden-onset climate related events such as cyclones, heavy rains, flooding, landslides etc. Although two participants spoke of EWSs for cholera; it seems that both Uganda and Zambia have effective EWSs for this. We did not share cases from Latin America on EWSs on illnesses, the incidence of which might potentially increase with climatic changes. There are however many EWSs for out breaks of dengue and other vector-borne illness in Latin America and we would be happy to do some more research into that for anyone that is interested.
The cities that we saw with valuable EWSs in place included Cape Town (South Africa), Chennai (India), Dhaka (Bangladesh) and Montevideo (Uruguay). These cases shared several innovative approaches. In Cape Town we saw the use of CCTV, in Montevideo we saw the use of targeted text-messaging to community members in the most vulnerable areas, in Dhaka we saw the use of an Interactive Voice Response System – where subscribers can call and hear up-to-date warning messages. The posts from select participants that shared information on these systems can be found attached to this post, in case you missed them.
Most participants shared that the monitoring component of EWS in their cities/countries was carried out by the national meteorological department. Information was largely said to be disseminated by the media, namely television, radio and newspapers. In emergency situations this is complemented by sirens, loud speakers, and phones. The majority felt that communication and dissemination of information is severely lacking in their cities. In the case that national meteorological departments warn of coming extreme weather, does this really mean anything to an unprepared population? Especially for members of the population that do not have televisions, or where illiteracy rates are high. Are people genuinely looking out for these warnings? Plus, even if the warnings reach them, how will they know what to do, and where to go? Participants felt that the training offered by the Civil Defence in Rio de Janeiro would be very useful in their local circumstances.
Many participants mentioned that they felt that the use of radio, mobile phones and the Internet, as in the Latin American case studies, might be successfully adapted for early warnings in their communities. We saw there are barriers to the effectiveness of such media according to local circumstances. In countries such as Ghana, there is 100% saturation of the mobile phone market, thus the use of SMS might be very effective; but in other countries in many people remain unconnected. In Zimbabwe we heard that the radio is seen as a male possession that roams with men where they go, thus potentially leaving women and children no better warned of imminent disasters.
The major challenges that were listed, for improving local EWSs, included many of our usual suspects:
- Lack of government commitment
- Lack of funding
- Lack of coordination between actors
- Lack of modern monitoring technology
- Lack of local capacity
- High illiteracy and poverty among most affected
We did see this week, that it is not only formal warning systems with a heavy technology base that can have a significant impact on warning local communities of coming disasters. Community level responses are extremely valuable. The discussion for Week 8, which just started, is looking specifically at that: how communities can be capacitated and work together to reduce disaster risk.
Charlotte Heffer
Moderator
ELLA Learning Alliance on Climate Resilient Cities
| Attached file(s): | ||
POSTSFROMWEEK7DIS23246.pdf | ||
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