Drought is a tricky hazard to prepare for in the Pacific – a silent, slow-onset disaster whose impacts may appear only gradually over months, making early warning early action difficult.
The Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme, the Pacific Community, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, the Tuvalu Meteorological Service and the Climate Centre together developed an ‘early action rainfall watch’ for Tuvalu that will provide simple alerts in a bulletin to assist preparedness for drought.
“The Tuvalu EARWatch will be very important to the Tuvalu Red Cross Society,” said Tusi Finikaso, TRCS Climate Change and Disaster Management Officer.
Finikaso added: “With the current strategy of taking the ‘last mile’ first, it will definitely help our communities as they will have an early-warning system that is based on scientific models they can use to determine their actions.
“In Nui and Nukufetau, for example, the branch is keen to use all tools available to them to help or influence activities at the community level.” A key component of the development of EARWatch has been to understand the relationship between a developing drought and its impacts: the atoll soils of Tuvalu do not hold moisture well and it takes less than a month for crops with shallow roots to become water-stressed.
Breadfruit, however, a staple food in Tuvalu, from trees with deep roots, copes better and is affected only after months of drought; other crops lie somewhere between.
‘Consequences’ Droughts can also have socio-economic impacts, and during extreme events the number of visitors can be restricted, community gatherings are cancelled, and schools and government offices are closed.
“Paying for Predictions was a good game for disaster stakeholders [last month] as it gave them the opportunity to experience consequences both of preparedness and inaction,” said Finikaso.
Now the National Society will have a better insight into the drought hazard that can have severe impacts in a country heavily dependent on rainfall for drinking water.
(Library photo: Rob Few/IFRC) How to help