The World Meteorological Organization WMO (a specialized agency of the United Nation), VBA (Volta Basin Authority) and GWP (Global Water Partnership) West Africa are implementing the Volta Flood and Drought Management (VFDM) project entitled ‘Integrating Flood and Drought Management and Early Warning for Climate Change Adaptation in the Volta Basin’ project. The project activities officially started in June 2019 and will last until mid-2023. The VFDM project is funded by the Adaptation Fund. VFDM project implementation entails the active involvement of National agencies (National Meteorological and Hydrological Services, Water Resources, Country Water protection, civil protection, etc.) and WMO partners, such as CIMA Research Foundation, Italian Civil Protection, IUCN and CERFE etc.
In the framework of the VFDM project activities, it is planned to assess the current database management systems and IT needs in the National Agencies of the Six project countries of the Volta Basin and Volta Basin Authority (VBA). The purposes of the study are: to identify existing data and information on flood and droughts, and how existing open-source data and information can be shared; to identify where new hardware, software, data connection mechanism, training and other resources are needed. Also, for each agency there will be an assessment of existing IT network structure, capabilities and its needs for connecting it to the National database. For assessing the above information, a survey on existing data and information has been prepared and a follow up country mission of Project Team (DB and IT experts of WMO, CIMA/DCP and VBA) is planned initially in Burkina Faso and Ghana and later will be carried out in other four countries (Benin, Togo, Mali and Cote d’Ivoire) incorporating lessons learned and feedbacks from Burkina Faso and Ghana.
The information collected in this study will support the implementation plan of VOLTALARAM EWS (myDewetra platform[1]) for the Volta Basin Region.
[1] myDEWETRA is an open-source platform contributing to the hydro-meteorological and wildfire risk forecasting and mitigation.