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INTERNATIONAL HELPDESK TO SUPPORT
INTEGRATED FLOOD MANAGEMENT LAUNCHED TODAY
Geneva, 17 June 2009 (WMO) –Floods are largely impacting almost all sectors of societal activities and services. Especially in the developing world, floods can be a strong determinant of overall positive or negative socio-economic development with huge consequences related to poverty and food security, to name a few. Land and water managers, together with emergency planners, policy-makers and the private sector, have to change course from traditional flood management towards a fully integrated approach to managing floods. To that end, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and some 20 multidisciplinary partner institutions, are joining to establish the HelpDesk for Integrated Flood Management (IFM HelpDesk). Launched today during the Second Session of the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction, the IFM HelpDesk will provide demand-driven guidance to all countries working on integrated flood management policy, strategy and development.
Floods are increasingly affecting the world’s population. Growing population pressure in flood-prone areas, combined with increasing climate variability, climate change and often inadequate natural resource management, are increasing the challenge to address floods in a sustainable manner. While flood waters are an essential water resource in many countries and floodplains hold many benefits for society for economic development, they can be also the cause huge losses of lives, livelihoods and property and thus can be a hindrance to socio-economic development of nations.
Therefore, an integrated approach to flood management is necessary to balance development opportunities on flood plains and flood risk. An important aspect of integrated flood management strategy is coordinating the needs of different stakeholders. For example, in Kenya, flood management for the Lake Victoria Basin must simultaneously address the problems of the poor flood-plain dwellers and the future development of agriculturally fertile land that is prone to frequent flooding. This requires that each sector of the economy take a role in the ways floods are managed, jointly with all national ministries, agencies and the affected provinces and communities. To that end, the Government of Kenya has been working towards a National Flood Management Strategy through a WMO pilot project. A similar project has been undertaken for Zambia’s KafueBasin.
Integrated flood management has a high return on investment. For example, when a large flood occurred along the Engelberger Aa, a mountain river flowing into Lake Lucerne in Switzerland, an integrated approach was instrumental in balancing the beneficial use of the floodplain and the damage potential. From an overall investment of about 30 million Swiss francs, an estimated 160 million Swiss Francs worth of damage has been prevented during the floods of 2005. The system is based on a mix of river engineering measures, flood hazard zoning, land use regulation and ecological upgrading of the river, as well as emergency planning measures at cantonal and municipal levels.
The IFM HelpDesk is being established at WMO as an intergovernmental organization in pursuit of a balanced flood management approach. The IFM HelpDesk draws on the professional capacity of its multidisciplinary partners – including highly specialized centres of excellence, established development partners, national governments and international organizations – to provide a demand-driven mechanism for addressing flood management realities. The IFM HelpDesk seeks to find pragmatic solutions that bridge the gap between international policy consensus and management challenges.
The HelpDesk is not a mechanism for responding to flood emergencies. The IFM HelpDesk is designed for use by stakeholders in the fields of water resources management, disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation. They include national, provincial and local agencies, National Meteorological and Hydrological Services, river basin organizations, non-governmental organizations, universities, community-based organizations and other flood management practitioners and planners. Training workshops for both water resource professionals and policy-makers already took place in Bolivia, Peru, Indonesia and the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The newly established domain www.floodmanagement.info provides the central access point where a range of services can be requested; and various tools, capacity building and learning materials retrieved. A virtual discussion forum allows flood management practitioners to exchange views and, experiences and to access tools from a flood management reference centre.
back to the IFM HelpDesk website
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