From: Biniam Tekle (biniamt@dehai.org)
Date: Thu Oct 22 2009 - 09:33:12 EDT
GREATER HORN OF AFRICA: Preparing to mitigate negative impact of El Niño
Photo: Manoocher Deghati/IRIN
An areial view of a flooded area in Somalia: Experts of disaster risk
reduction are meeting in Kenya to develop strategies for reducing the
negative impact of the evolving El Niño phenomenon (file photo)
NAIROBI, 19 October 2009 (IRIN) - As countries across East Africa and the
Horn of Africa begin to receive El Niño-related enhanced rainfall, disaster
risk reduction experts from 10 countries in the region are meeting in
Nairobi to develop strategies for reducing the negative impact of the
evolving El Niño phenomenon.
"Africa, and in particular the Horn of Africa, suffers more and more the
impact of climate-induced hazards," Pedro Basabe, the Africa programme
representative of the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction
(UNISDR), said on 19 October at the beginning of the three-day conference,
organized by the InterGovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and World
Bank. "Drought and floods affect directly or indirectly millions of people
each year, in particular the poor who are the most vulnerable."
According to the IGAD Climate Prediction and Applications Centre (ICPAC),
which produces monthly and seasonal climate outlooks, the Greater Horn of
Africa is prone to extreme climate events such as drought and floods, which
often have severe negative effects on the region’s key socio-economic
sectors.
Experts from Burundi, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania,
Uganda, Sudan and Somalia are attending the conference, of which the second
and third day will be held in the western town of Kisumu, with participants
making field trips to nearby flood-prone areas.
In a keynote speech, Moses Gitari, a senior deputy secretary in the Kenyan
Ministry of State for Special Programmes, said memories of the negative
impacts of the 1997-1998 El Niño and awareness efforts by climate experts
had helped the country develop several disaster preparedness strategies.
"These include education, awareness and information sharing, risks and
vulnerability analysis, people-centred early warning, adaptation to climate
change, environmental protection, vulnerability reduction through
development and social programmes and community coping mechanisms," Gitari
said.
We have pre-positioned relief items, human and material resources
countrywide in all the eight regions we work in and have conducted drills in
some of the regions with a view to putting preparedness capacity on alert
status
He added that community level intervention was pivotal to any disaster risk
reduction strategy.
Gitari said the meeting was timely since some of the intervention efforts
could require support beyond individual countries' borders.
Abbas Gullet, secretary-general of the Kenya Red Cross Society, said the
government, UN agencies and NGOs had, in September, developed a National
Contingency Plan for El Niño, "which is being [put into operation]
currently".
"We have pre-positioned relief items, human and material resources
countrywide in all the eight regions we work in and have conducted drills in
some of the regions with a view to putting preparedness capacity on alert
status," Gullet said. "It is our hope that this workshop will provide
opportunities to explore the various ways and means of entrenching disaster
risk reduction in communities we work with and provide a way forward for
building safer and resilient communities countrywide."
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