03 Feb 2019

An official from the SADC Infrastructure Directorate has emphasised the need for member states to provide the climate service centre (CSC) with timely, accurate weather and climate information to assist in rapid decision making.

Speaking after a tour of the centre by Namibian President, Dr Geingob Hage, who is also the SADC chairperson, Dr Prithiviraj Booneeady said most SADC states were slow in providing the required data to the centre, which is situated at the meteorological centre in Gaborone.

He noted that over the years SADC member countries had witnessed extreme climatic conditions that caused damage to property and loss of lives, including floods, drought, wildfires, landslides and other hazards.

“As a result, there were negotiations that meteorologies around the world should share their climate data for processing and to give early warning if need be. This also resulted in the formation of the climate service centre in Botswana which is a regional centre of excellence,” he said.

He said the centre’s function was to provide regional early warning information services for sustainable development.

Furthermore, Dr Booneeady said the centre carried out verification to find out whether the forecast issued to member states was accurate or not, pointing out that their results were always tallied with their observation and forecast.

He, however, said the centre could only realise its purpose if member states provided worthy information.

He noted some projects that they have been embarking on for the past 22 years, citing the SARCOF seasonal forecast.

He said SARCOF gave rainfall behaviour expected over the SADC region in the coming six months over a period of three months. “It also gives an outlook on the behaviour of the rainfall in the region,” he said.

The other project Dr Booneeady mentioned was the Southern African Regional Climate Information Service for Disaster Resilience (SARCIS-DR) Development, which he explained was a customised continental satellite and weather information for Disaster Resilience in Africa (SAWIDRA) project.

SAWIDRA aims to decrease the negative impacts of extreme weather conditions and climate-related phenomena and risks thereby contributing to sustainable development.
Dr Booneeady said the climate service centre had been able to empower the youth, especially in the area of sustainable development under the on-job training and attachment to the centre.

For his part, the acting director of the Department of Meteorological Services, Mr Sacrasta Nchengwa noted that Botswana has been hosting the SADC  climate service centre for many years.

He said the long standing collaboration between his department and the SADC climate centre had seen the successful implementation of at least three SADC supported regional projects, the latest being the monitoring for environment and security in Africa project that came to an end in September 2017.

He expressed hope that the collaboration and engagement would continue to grow from strength to strength so as to enhance SADC’s efforts towards regional integration on matters of the environment, sustainability, weather, climate and other SADC related responsibilities. ENDS