A new US$5.5m project has been announced by the Climate Risk and Early Warning Systems (CREWS) Initiative to enhance early warning systems in Cambodia and Lao People’s Democratic Republic (PDR).
The four-year project, which is due to begin in October 2021, will be led by national institutions and will enhance their capacities to provide hydrometeorological, early action, and response services to vulnerable populations in Cambodia and Lao PDR.
These efforts are being supported by WMO, the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), and the World Bank Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (WB-GFDRR). The project builds upon ongoing initiatives in the region and actively engages with key regional stakeholders.
Through the duration of the project, the national meteorological and hydrological services (NMHSs) and national disaster management offices (NDMOs) of both countries, with support from regional partners, will address current gaps across the four pillars of their early warning systems: risk knowledge, monitoring and warning services, dissemination and communication and response capability.
Ben Churchill, head of WMO Regional Office, Asia and Southwest Pacific, said, “This support from CREWS comes just at the right time, as it enables us to continue to build upon past and ongoing initiatives which have built the foundations for strengthening end-to-end early warning system in Cambodia and Lao PDR. The planned activities will sufficiently address the needs and priorities of the countries and are well aligned with ongoing WMO programs within the region whilst leveraging support from the WMO Regional Forecast Support Centre (RFSC) in Ha Noi, Vietnam.”
For more information on the CREWS Cambodia and Lao PDR project, click here.