Vietnam assumes central role in SEA flash flood guidance system

VOV.VN - The Vietnam Meteorological and Hydrological Administration (VNMHA) recently signed a document with the World Meteorological Ogranization (WMO) for further co-operation in the Regional Center for Southeast Asia Flash Flood Guidance System (SeAFFGS).

After recognising that flash floods have a particularly disastrous impact on lives and the properties of affected populations, the 15th WMO Congress approved the implementation of a Flash Flood Guidance System (FFGS) project with global coverage.

A meeting of the SeAFFGS was held in Hanoi in November 11, 2017, featuring the participation of representatives of the meteorological and hydrological units from Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam.

The participants all outlined their support for the proposal of Vietnam becoming the Regional Center for FFGS. Accordingly, Vietnam is tasked with co-ordinating with other regional countries in exploiting and using data compiled by the flash flood warning system to improve the overall forecasting capacity of flash floods and landslides.

The SEAFFGS has been developed under the framework of the project “Building Resilience to High-Impact Hydro-meteorological Events through Strengthening Multi-Hazard Early Warning Systems (MHEWS) in Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and Southeast Asia (SeA)”, which received funding from the Canadian Government.

Vietnam officially launched the SEAFFGS on June 26, whilst the VNMHA has been chosen as the Regional Center for FFGS.

Addressing the signing ceremony on August 8, Tran Hong Thai, general director of the Vietnam Meteorological and Hydrological Administration, noted that the event marked an extremely important milestone for both the wider Southeast Asia community and for Vietnam in particular on its natural disaster resilient enhancement.

According to Thai, flash floods lead to more than 5,000 deaths annually and cause huge damage to properties, threatening global sustainable development. Particularly, compounded by the impact of climate change, flash floods and landslides occur with higher intensity and frequency and are particularly hard to forecast.

Thai stressed that thanks to the recognition and trust shown by the WMO Secretariat, SEAFFGS member countries, and colleagues, the VNMHA has been chosen as the Regional Center for FFGS.

 “We do hope to continue receiving support from WMO and other member countries in order to provide better information on flash floods and landslides warning, contributing to natural disaster risk reduction and sustainable development in the region,” said Thai.

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