Early warnings
Local weather change is more likely to set off extra frequent and extra excessive climate occasions, such because the August flood, mentioned Shaikh Rokon, head of Riverine Individuals, a Bangladesh non-profit selling stewardship of rivers and inshore wetlands.
“However local weather change shouldn’t be made right into a scapegoat for explaining away preparedness gaps inside and between international locations”, Rokon mentioned.
The United Nations’ 2015 Sendai Framework for Catastrophe Threat Discount says international locations ought to present early warnings and assist communities make preparations earlier than floods hit.
Forecasts and well timed messaging have introduced the demise toll from monsoon floods to close zero in susceptible communities in South Asia, mentioned Dharam Raj Uprety from the Britain-based improvement organisation Sensible Motion, which has applied flood resilience initiatives in Bangladesh and Nepal.
However whereas monsoon floods will be predicted 10 to 12 days forward, flash floods brought on by rain give a lot much less warning and which means alerting communities is a a lot larger problem, mentioned Sardar Uday Raihan, government engineer on the Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh and India arrange a joint river fee in 1972 to foster cooperation on flood warnings for the 54 rivers that cross their border. India and Nepal have an identical fee.
However it might assist if there have been actual time information sharing on water launched from dams and upstream water ranges, Raihan mentioned.
Regional cooperation
Joint motion is a rarity, mentioned Sumit Vij, a professor at Wageningen College within the Netherlands. It makes little sense for every nation to have its personal technique to adapt to the identical floods, he mentioned.
“Although we regularly stress on domestically led adaptation, we really want international locations and areas over the identical river basin or climatic area to align their adaptation efforts and share assets to take care of disasters,” Vij mentioned.
One uncommon instance of cooperation has been over the Koshi and Karnali rivers that stream from Nepal to India.
The venture, applied by Sensible Motion and different organisations, upgraded climate stations and arrange a system to ship cellular phone alerts of rising waters.
Whereas it was carried out primarily on the Nepalese facet of the border, the venture additionally benefited Indians dwelling close to the frontier who may additionally obtain the flood warnings.
At current, Bangladesh and India have agreements on just a few of the rivers that go between them. The 2 international locations ought to formulate a single complete settlement on all their 54 transboundary rivers as a substitute of pursuing prolonged negotiations for every river individually, Vij mentioned.
“We, South Asian nations, must work collectively,” he mentioned.
This story was printed with permission from Thomson Reuters Basis, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian information, local weather change, resilience, ladies’s rights, trafficking and property rights. Go to https://www.context.information/.
