Back to news
2 Jan 2015 | News

Promoting regional efforts to reduce flood vulnerabilities

1 min Read

70% Complete

ICIMOD, in collaboration with the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), organized the eighth Regional Steering Committee (RSC) meeting for the HKH-HYCOS project. This final SRC meeting of the current phase was held from 22 to 24 September 2014 at the ICIMOD headquarters in Kathmandu. Participants from Bhutan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan as well as the WMO, Government of Finland, Finnish Meteorological Institute, ICIMOD, and international experts reviewed the project progress and endorsed a project proposal for the next phase, focusing on delivering lifesaving flood warning messages to vulnerable communities.

The HKH-HYCOS project is working to establish a regional flood information system in the HKH region in close collaboration with the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the six regional partner countries namely, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Nepal, and Pakistan. More specifically, the project seeks to reduce flood vulnerability in the Indus and Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna river basins by minimizing loss of lives and livelihoods. To that end, it works to strengthen regional cooperation for sharing flood data and information among the member countries. The project is supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Government of Finland

The project has upgraded 37 hydromet stations in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and Pakistan. These stations can now automatically observe rainfall and water level measurements. The project has established web-based regional and national flood information systems for sharing real-time data and information for reducing risks. The project is also piloting a regional flood outlook model using Mike 11 hydrological software. Apart from real-time hydromet data from the 37 stations upgraded by the project, freely available rainfall forecast data is being inputted into the flood outlook model to add value and improve accuracy of the model. In order to sustain the initiative, the project has focused heavily on enhancing partner organizations’ technical capacity in flood forecasting and communication, and sought public private partnerships, especially with telecom operators, for disaster risk reduction.
In view of the imminent funding shortage between the end of the current phase and the next phase, RSC members have committed to supporting some of the project activities through their national budget.

Stay current

Stay up to date on what’s happening around the HKH with our most recent publications and find out how you can help by subscribing to our mailing list.

Sign Up

related contents

Continue exploring this topic

13 Mar 2015 News
Web-related Training for NEPA Afghanistan

A training on web development and content management was organized for four representatives of the National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA ...

25 May 2015 News
Grave situation in Sindhuli as recovery begins

On 19 and 20 May, a team from ICIMOD visited four northern VDCs of Sindhuli District - Baseshwor, Bhimeshwor, Jalkanya, ...

12 Oct 2015 News
Team visits climate smart Indian cardamom farms

  Wanting to know more about sustainable management practices of cardamom produc-tion, a team of six from the International Centre for ...

21 Feb 2018 KSL
Manual on Planning Management for Ecosystem Services Launched

The operations manual can be of use in most terrestrial environments of the world. Its purpose is to include ecosystem ...

8 Mar 2018 Gender in Koshi
Women and Fieldwork: Reclaiming public spaces and transgressing curfews

Women’s Day brings into focus women situated at various intersections of class, age, caste, race, education, culture, and geographical location. ...

9 Dec 2016 Gender in Koshi
ICIMOD-supported Local Water Use Plans Gain Momentum

For the people of Bhimeswar in the Koshi basin of Nepal’s hilly Sindhuli district, the winter harvest season began with ...

14 Dec 2015 Atmosphere Initiative
Motivating Journalists on Atmospheric Issues

  Twenty eight highly motivated journalists from eight countries of the Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region —Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, ...

13 Oct 2015 News
Let the Music Play on

  ICIMOD has band of very accomplished musicians who play theme songs or regional songs. It is blessed with great capacity ...