Climate disaster losses average billions a day

Over the past 50 years, on average, disasters related to weather, climate or water hazards have occurred on a daily basis, resulting in roughly 120 fatalities and an estimated daily cost of more than US$200 million (about N$3.54 billion) in losses globally."In addition, the number of weather and climate disasters increased by a factor of five over the past 50 years, driven by anthropogenic climate change and causing more extreme weather events."This is according to agriculture minister Calle Schlettwein at the Regional Association 1 Hydrology and Water Coordination Panel Hybrid Meeting.Schlettwein said that notably, water resources are under increasing pressure due to demographic, economic, social, and climatic changes as well as the ever-growing global demand for energy, food and water.New ideas wantedHe said that better management of water resources requires strengthened transboundary cooperation, the application of water diplomacy tools, climate-proof security policies, and improved water governance."To effectively address these challenges, we need to come up with new ideas and approaches at regional and international levels."Schlettwein said that since rivers, lakes, oceans, and aquifers have no political or community boundaries, they need to move away from old practices of monitoring and managing these vital resources on a fragmented and isolated basis.He said that there is a need to harness new technologies and tools to monitor and manage these resources and the disasters that affect them.Heated raceThis, for example, includes improved monitoring by satellites, more extensive ground-based sensors, and an improvement in early warnings for all disaster management.Schlettwein said climate change is threatening Africa’s communities, ecosystems and economies."We are running the risk of losing the race against climate change. It becomes our task now to invest in early warning systems for better preparedness and mitigation."He stressed that a comprehensive early-warning system must also include lessons learned from past events to continually improve responses to potential future climate, water and related environmental hazards."The situation calls for concerted efforts from all role players to better resource regional and national early warning systems and the generation of the relevant data. For this purpose, partnerships, and transboundary and international cooperation are imperative," Schlettwein said.Namibia has a network of rainfall and hydrological stations and also uses advanced technologies, such as satellite-based approaches, to monitor water and weather phenomena and collect data and information.Big agendaThe panel is one of the committees of the World Meteorological Organisation&#039;s (WMO&#039;s) regional association for Africa and also the think tank on hydrology for Africa.It integrates the hydrological work of WMO into the wider African and global water agenda to promote activities in operational hydrology and to further close cooperation between meteorological and hydrological services.It also supports and advises on an integrated delivery of WMO water-related activities and undertakes preparatory work for the hydrological assembly in relation to current and emerging scientific and technical water-related global challenges.

Climate disaster losses average billions a day

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Namibian Sun 2025-09-19

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Climate disaster losses average billions a day

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Namibian Sun 2025-09-19

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