For the past five years, the Africa Hydromet Program has worked to unite communities, countries, and the entire continent to tackle looming disaster risks. In its first phase, the initiative has dedicated US$312M to overcome these challenges, so much so that across Africa, 26 million people are benefitting from improved hydro-meteorological—hydromet—services with investments from the Africa Hydromet Program.
The program protects the most vulnerable communities, connecting regional organizations in Central, Eastern, Southern and Western Africa with government agencies and local communities through projects in more than 15 countries. One of these projects is the Climate Resilience: Transforming Hydro-Meteorological Services project in Mozambique.
Mozambique is one of the most exposed countries to hydro-meteorological risks in Africa. This coastal southeast African country is susceptible to flood and drought cycles, extreme storms, and cyclones, placing it in the top 10% of most vulnerable countries to natural hazards, disasters and resulting crises. Within a span of a month, two devastating cyclones hit the country in 2019—Cyclone Idai, which struck in March 2020, and Cyclone Kenneth, in April. These disaster events have caused considerable damages and losses to people, the economy and the environment, but the country has resolved to bolster its resilience.
Through the Africa Hydromet Program, the project set up early warning systems and offered flood forecasting for the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers—the second largest and the fourth longest rivers on the continent—and also for the Incomati River basin, which runs through neighboring countries, Eswatini and South Africa.
The project also provided hydro-meteorological information to farmers in key locations in the Gaza province, which host prized ecological lands such as the Limpopo and Banhine national parks. Weather service alerts have been set up in coastal areas such as Inhambane, offering innovations that deliver data to communities most in need. For the first time, fully functioning forecast and warning systems have been set up in districts like Malabane, Inharrime and Massinga.
All these helped to transform observation and monitoring in 58 river gauge stations and upgrade hydro-meteorological modeling and forecasting, that enhance disaster readiness, mitigation, and preparation—exceeding the project’s target by over 120%.
Now, people, communities and businesses alike benefit from daily forecasts and impact-based warnings via over 66 synoptic weather stations and 65 real-time weather monitoring stations that protect lives, boost livelihoods and advance the country’s overall development. Through collaboration, the plan is to expand and replicate this success in other areas, through various programs throughout the country, and all of Africa.
As Mozambique’s National Director of Water Resources Management Messais Macie said, the country is now more prepared than ever, and still continuously working to improve resilient disaster risk management and sustainability. And progress is not only evident in Mozambique.
