Approximately 80 experts from National
Meteorological and Hydrological Services, research institutions and
universities of the WASCAL mandate region participated in the workshop.
The workshop was opened by Dr. Laurent Sédogo, Executive Director of
WASCAL, Dr. Dr. Dietrich Pohl, Ambassador of the German Embassy in
Ouagadougou, and Prof. Filiga Michel Sawadogo, Minister of Secondary,
Higher Education and Scientific Research.
Currently, the National
Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NHHS) face many challenges to
maintain their data collection stations and to provide conclusive
meteorological and hydrological data. The network density of the
National Meteorological and Hydrological Services is low in many West
African countries and below standards recommended by the World
Meteorological Organization (WMO). Frequent failures in equipment lead
to gaps in the data records. The NMHS stated problems concerning data
archiving, quality control and analysis including deficiencies in staff
number (mostly affected by personnel retirement) and capacity building.
Dr.
Laurent Sédogo, Executive Director of WASCAL, stressed the importance
of working together in the effort to combat climate change: “It is only
together that we can handle the issue of climate change. Not every
single country has the scientific capacity, the human capacity, and the
technical capacity to tackle climate change. For the northern countries
climate change may be a scenario of the future, but we in West Africa,
we already live the reality of climate change.” “WASCAL aims to assess,
connect and enhance the existing national observation networks”,
explains Dr. Boubacar Barry, director of the WASCAL Competence Center.
“Such cooperation would benefit all participants.” WASCAL will provide
the networks with a number of stations to fill the gaps in the network.
Training of staff members will further contribute to a successful
running of the stations. WASCAL’s data infrastructure will serve as a
shared dissemination platform. Based on the data provided by the
national services, WASCAL in return will be able to improve models,
climate change scenarios and offer climate service to stakeholders for
the West African region.
The workshop followed two regional
workshops organized by WASCAL in August 2010 during which the Directors
and representatives of the National Meteorological and Hydrological
Services presented the history and the current situation of their
respective organizations, on tasks, weaknesses and strengths as well as
their expectations of how WASCAL can support and strengthen the West
African observation networks on climate and water resources. “Following
up with the results from the workshops in 2010, we now established a
timeline and agreed on a communique to line out the further steps
towards the establishment of the Regional Hydro-Climate Observation
Network. Another important result was the drafting of a joint Data
Sharing Policy, which regulates the rights and regulations concerning
data exchange” summarized Dr. Mouhamadou Bamba Sylla, Coordinator of the
WASCAL Observation Networks.
Contact
Coordinator Observation Networks: Dr. M. B. Sylla, sylla.b(at)wascal.org, syllabamba(at)yahoo.fr
Press and Public Relations: Jelana Vajen, press(at)wascal.org