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Mobile communications to revolutionize African weather monitoring [Back
to News Reports] 18th June - The
Global Humanitarian Forum and its President, former UN Secretary General Kofi
Annan, together with Ericsson, the World Meteorological Organization, mobile telecommunications
company Zain, and the Earth Institute at Columbia University, today announced
a major initiative, dubbed "Weather Info for All", to radically improve Africa's
weather monitoring network in the face of the growing impact of climate change.
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recent Global Humanitarian Forum report estimated that climate change is responsible
for some 300,000 deaths each year and over USD 100 billion worth of economic losses,
mainly because of shocks to health and agricultural productivity. |
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- Global Humanitarian
Forum, Ericsson, WMO, and Zain and other mobile operators to deploy up to 5,000
automatic weather stations in mobile network sites across Africa, where less than
300 are reporting today
- Partnership will increase dissemination
of weather information via mobile phones to users and communities, including remote
farmers and fishermen
- First 19 stations deployed more than double
Lake Victoria region weather monitoring, where 5,000 people die every year due
to storms and accident
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Sub-Saharan
Africa accounts for close to a quarter of these losses, and is the region at the
most immediate risk of droughts and floods. Agricultural yields in some areas
are expected to fall by 50 percent as early as 2020. The Global Humanitarian
Forum initiated this collaboration in response to Africa's severe gap in weather
information highlighted at the Forum's first annual event. The members of the
initiative will deploy up to 5,000 new automatic weather observation stations
across Africa, intending to provide a massive increase in crucial information
to predict and manage climate shocks. Africa has a network eight times below
the WMO minimum recommended standard, and less than 200 weather stations that
meet WMO observation requirements, compared to several thousand each in Europe,
North America, and parts of Asia. The 5,000 weather stations will be installed
at new and existing mobile network sites throughout the continent over coming
years, in what promises to save lives and bring increased economic opportunity
to tens of millions of people. An innovative public-private partnership
on a unique scale, the initiative relies on the core business of telecom. Ericsson,
the world's leading provider of telecommunications equipment and services, will
tap relationships with African operators such as Zain, who will host the weather
equipment at mobile network sites being rolled out across Africa. Achieving the
5,000 target would require additional operator commitment and external financing.
The launch was held at the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction,
where Kofi Annan said: "The world's poorest are also the world's most vulnerable
when it comes to the impact of climate change, and the least equipped to deal
with its consequences. Today you find cell phone towers in almost every part of
Africa. We have never been able to establish weather monitoring on that scale,
until now. By bringing together the expertise and resources of different public
and private actors, this project may help to save lives and improve the livelihoods
of communities in Africa living on the frontlines of climate change." Also
present at the launch, Carl-Henric Svanberg, President and CEO of Ericsson, said:
"As the leading provider of telecommunications in Africa and active on the
continent for more than 100 years, we are driving the rapid expansion of mobile
communications. This initiative presents a unique opportunity to simultaneously
help mitigate the impact of climate change for those most affected and to strengthen
weather networks and systems across the continent. We look forward to having more
operators come on board to realize the full impact of the initiative." Mobile
networks provide the necessary connectivity, power and security to sustain the
weather equipment. Through its Mobile Innovation Center in Africa, Ericsson will
also develop mobile applications to help communicate weather information developed
by national meteorological and hydrological services (NMHSs) via mobile phones.
Mobile operators will maintain the automatic weather stations and assist in the
transmission of the data to national met services. | | |
The initial deployment,
already begun in Zain networks, focuses on the area around Lake Victoria in Kenya,
Tanzania and Uganda. The first 19 stations installed will double the weather monitoring
capacity of the Lake region. Zain CEO Saad Al Barrak commented: "It
is truly wonderful that many communities across Africa will now have accurate
meteorological information readily available. Here we can see how mobile communications
can play a key role in helping to improve both the quality of life and safety
for people in the remotest parts of the world." Approximately 70 percent
of Africans rely on farming for their livelihood, or close to 700 million people,
and over 95 percent of Africa's agriculture depends on rainfall. Changing weather
patterns due to climate change render obsolete traditional knowledge relating
to agriculture otherwise reliable for centuries, creating a great need for meteorological
information. Also present at the Geneva launch was Michel Jarraud, Secretary-General
of the WMO, the United Nations System's authoritative voice on Weather, Climate
and Water, which is coordinating involvement of NMHSs participating in the initiative.
Jarraud said: "For food production, almost every decision is linked
to weather, climate and water parameters. We see the Weather Info for All initiative
as a major pan-African effort to empower our 188 Members to provide enhanced weather
information and services. Working through NMHSs, WMO will identify weather information
needs, advise on technical requirements and help disseminate the information.
This initiative may prove to be one of the most important for African meteorology
in decades. The project will also therefore support the goals of the WMO-organized
World Climate Conference-3, to be held from 31 August to 4 September 2009 in Geneva." The
initiative will have an impact far beyond agriculture and disaster preparation
as it also includes assistance to national meteorological services in training
and technical capacities. Better weather information will also make possible the
development of services, such as microinsurance, which can be based on weather
data indexes, such as rainfall. The initiative will also increase the volume of
information useful for scientists, as well as for the water, transport and energy
industries. While the weather information gap is particularly acute in Africa,
the initiative would be open to later expansion into other affected regions. A
further partner in the initiative is Columbia University's Earth Institute, headed
by Jeffrey Sachs. To help with distribution to some of the most vulnerable and
poorest parts of Africa and in partnership with the Earth Institute, automatic
weather stations will also be installed in Millennium Villages - rural development
projects spread throughout 10 countries and focused on achieving the Millennium
Development Goals. By leveraging the expertise of Earth Institute scientists on
climatology, agriculture, and health, the project hopes to identify key areas
where there can be an immediate impact contributing a sizable knowledge bank to
the effort. "The Earth Institute is a proud partner in this highly
innovative program," said Jeffrey Sachs, director of the institute. "Once
the switch is turned on, a flow of extensive weather data will become available
throughout Africa, with benefits extending from the national policy makers to
the smallholder farmers. The Millennium Villages is a perfect launch site for
the practical and timely application of weather data to bolster resilience and
sustainable development in sub-Saharan Africa." Back
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