From 19 to 21 June, the Integrating Flood and Drought Management and Early Warning for Climate Change Adaptation in the Volta Basin (VFDM) project is closing in Accra, Ghana.
Launched in 2019, the project was funded by the Adaptation Fund and led by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the West Africa Global Water Partnership (GWP/OA) and the Volta Basin Authority (VBA). Risk reduction and adaptation to climate change are the two main objectives guiding the project’s activities. The Volta basin covers a vast area (around 400,000 square kilometres), passing through regions with extremely varied climatic characteristics, ranging from semi-arid to semi-humid. The Volta is Ghana’s main river, but it also flows through five other countries : Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali and Togo.
Over the last twenty years, the Volta basin has been affected by increasingly frequent floods and droughts as a result of the climate crisis. These phenomena have severely affected the local populations, whose socio-economic fabric is extremely fragile. The project was created specifically to strengthen the resilience of the area, by supporting the six regions of the basin in coordinated and collaborative efforts to develop management plans for risk reduction and adaptation to climate change. Working actively with project partners and stakeholders, including national meteorological, hydrological, civil protection and agricultural authorities.
The project has focused on strengthening the capacity of the ABV through the implementation of tools such as the myDewetra-VOLTALARM platform, which is used for flood and drought prevention and communities.
The event ended with the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the Volta Basin Authority and the CIMA Research Foundation. This agreement signifies the ongoing collaboration for the continuous improvement of the myDewetra-VOLTALARM system and its use to protect local communities against floods and droughts.
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