Strengthening Hydromet and Early Warning Services in Afghanistan : A Road Map
Hydrological and meteorological (hydromet) data collection and analysis in Afghanistan started in the late 1940s and mid-1950s, respectively. The hydrometric network expanded rapidly in the 1960s and 1970s, reaching a peak of 150 in 1980, and the m...
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2018
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/976021545165642530/Strengthening-Hydromet-and-Early-Warning-Services-in-Afghanistan-A-Road-Map http://hdl.handle.net/10986/31059 |
| Summary: | Hydrological and meteorological
(hydromet) data collection and analysis in Afghanistan
started in the late 1940s and mid-1950s, respectively. The
hydrometric network expanded rapidly in the 1960s and 1970s,
reaching a peak of 150 in 1980, and the meteorological
network had a similar trajectory. Two decades of war,
however, brought instability and insecurity that reduced
public resources, capacities, collaboration, and
coordination. The institutional framework governing weather,
climate and hydrological (hydromet) services as well as
early warning (EW) and disaster risk management (DRM)
services did not escape these setbacks. In 1996, Taliban
forces sacked the meteorology office, ruining equipment and
destroying over 100 years of weather records. Hydroelectric
production nearly ceased as turbines were destroyed,
floodgates blown open, and transmission lines brought down.
The civil war and its aftermath led to the degradation of
traditional observation networks, prevalence of outdated and
inefficient technologies, and lack of modern instruments and
information and communication technology (ICT). The absence
of forecasts and weather information reversed years of
development gains in farming and civil aviation operations.
In 1998, an Ariana Afghan Airlines flight in route from
Kandahar to Kabul in bad weather crashed into a mountaintop,
killing 45 people. From 1998 to 2004, a major drought forced
nearly 1 million Afghans from their farms and herds into
metropolitan areas, impacting half the agriculture land,
killing 3 million livestock, and seriously depleting
groundwater resources in Kabul and the Kabul Water Basin. |
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