Page 36 - CIWA-AR24

East Africa

and cooperation. The Awards had over The project has delivered a database attended by technical working group
160 entrants covering seven aspects and categorized data, including time (TWG) members and experts from
of journalistic work—print, digital, TV, series and spatial datasets for member each country’s national meteorology
radio, photo, best female entry, and states. Additionally, community field agency and disaster preparedness
best collaborative entry. surveys in flood-prone areas, including offices. A dissemination platform is
Akobo, Malakal, Pibor, Nasir, Gambela, delivering three customized early-
Highlighting the importance of and Itang, have been completed and warning products daily to
involving youth as key stakeholders of will be used as input for modeling and stakeholders within 48 hours of a
water resources management, the community awareness. flash-flood forecast.
21
NBDF event also featured the first-ever
Nile Basin Youth Competition, which The enhanced EN-FFEWS system is In March 2024, an inception report
aimed to identify innovative science now operational for Tekeze-Setit- was created to initiate a basin-wide
and technology solutions, policies, and Atbara, Blue Nile, Lake Tana, and flood assessment and identify
good practices and experiences for Baro-Akobo-Sobat sub basins, investment options for flood-risk
addressing water challenges. It covering 35 forecast locations and mitigation. This process involved a
received over 100 entries ranging from rainfall in 55 catchments. Flood consultation workshop attended by
20
solutions for a wide range of water hazard maps and flood vulnerability and the regional working group (RWG) and
resources-related challenges including risk maps have been produced for 16 participants from meteorological
water quality management, water flood-prone areas (Figure 2). The agencies to inform the assessment.
scarcity remediation, water conflict EN-FFEWS has significantly protected Following this, from April to July 2024,
resolution, and climate change resilience. livelihoods by mitigating the adverse the NELSAP-CU and NBD conducted
impacts of floods on agriculture and country consultations and field visits in
Between February and May 2023, the other economic activities in the Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and
NBI compiled 166 papers for the NBDF floodplains and surrounding Uganda to assess national priorities for
by using a mix of calls for abstracts communities. Improved flood flood-risk management, collect data,
and direct requests for papers, which management is expected to safeguard and map stakeholders. The national
were used to design 25 webinars critical infrastructure such as roads, flood-risk assessments are anticipated
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under five themes of basin monitoring: bridges, and irrigation systems, thereby to be completed in 2024.
strategic water resources assessments reducing repair and maintenance costs.
and the water-energy-food nexus; Nile-SEC produces the bi-weekly
watershed management and During the upcoming flood season, Monitoring and Forecasting Drought
ecosystem sustainability; climate ENTRO is working with Young Bulletin. Content includes drought
22
change resilience and mitigation; Professionals to provide tailored forecast indices tailored for both hydrological and
finance, investment, and the SDGs; and alerts via local media channels such as meteorological droughts, using climate
transboundary water governance. The WhatsApp and Telegram, enhancing data from the 10 major Nile sub-basins
webinars were attended by 1,061 people support for the countries affected by and enhancing the Nile River Basin
from 58 countries, including engineers, flooding. Capacity-building training on flow-forecast system in FY25.
hydrologists, foreign service officers, the strengthened system was
and civil society activists—with 78 conducted for national Flood Forecast The development and implementation
percent of participants from the Nile Center experts from Ethiopia, South of the Nile Drought Early-Warning
Basin and 31 percent female. Sudan, and Sudan. System (Nile DEWS) under ENTRO has
been underway since October 2023,
Other platform activities were cross- Enhancing the early-warning system following a drought early-warning
cutting with components described and raising awareness for its uptake needs assessment and data gap
below. are crucial. ENTRO strengthened flood analysis conducted by ENTRO in 2022.
community awareness and A regional inception workshop for Nile
Flood- and Drought-Risk Mitigation
preparedness for 17 flood-prone DEWS was held on January 2024 in
NTRO’s flood-risk mitigation sites—comprising seven locations in Addis Ababa. The work is on track to
E
activities have made significant Ethiopia (in the sub-basins deliver the first version of the Nile DEWS
progress, focusing on the three main Tekeze-Setit-Atbara, Lake Tana, in 2024.
work areas. The initial phase involved Baro-Akobo-Sobat), four in South
comprehensive surveying and data Sudan (sub-basin Baro-Akobo-Sobat),
collection aimed at improving the and six in Sudan (sub-basin
accuracy of model forecasts. This Tekeze-Setit-Atbara).
phase covered nine cities and towns in
Ethiopia, South Sudan, and Sudan, In FY23, the NELSAP-CU, in
providing essential maps that will collaboration with the NBD, identified
enhance the flood-risk landscape. and mapped flash flood-prone areas

19 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_mx3WOnt2I&list=PLTl8iRAEinFVpXy6U8b5PTBZhryhslPoi
20 The model is publicly accessible: https://entro-ffews-dev.westeurope.cloudapp.azure.com/
21 https://waterdss-wrd-prod.eu.mike-cloud.com/workspaces/6c407e1b-5d25-4d83-b782-b6c81f8648ee
31 22 https://www.flooddroughtmonitor.com