Disaster Management experts in Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Nepal, and Pakistan met to endorse a new collaborative effort to protect communities from floods and other climate events 

Kathmandu–  Senior Disaster Management experts from six Hindu Kush Himalayan countries met to support a new effort to help protect communities, infrastructure, and ecosystem services from the rising numbers and intensity of disasters hitting the mountain zone.

The Hindu Kush Himalayan Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Hub, a voluntary platform to accelerate understanding, information-sharing, and action to address mountain hazards in vulnerable zones, was welcomed by representatives from Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Nepal, and Pakistan on Monday, 9 December, in Kathmandu.

“This initiative is about saving lives, safeguarding livelihoods and infrastructure, and protecting economies in a zone that we know with tragic certainty temperature rise is set to make ever-more hazardous,” said Pema Gyamtsho, Director General of the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), which anchors the DRR Hub. 

“We are running out of time to prepare for the changes in hydrology, river systems, and ground stability that it unleashes,” said Neera Shrestha Pradhan, who leads ICIMOD’s work on Managing Cryosphere and Water Risks.  “Joining forces is a key route to reduce the impact of the destructive events that lie ahead for families and enterprises in our region.” 

 The Hindu Kush Himalaya’s topography, weather systems, and high population make it disproportionately vulnerable to climate-induced disasters.

Floods in Pakistan were this week pronounced the “most deadly climate event of 2024” by Al Jazeera. Elsewhere, severe rainfall in Bangladesh impacted 18 million people, and Nepal saw unprecedented rainfall that left 268 people dead and tore through homes, agricultural land, and infrastructure. 

“With many governments in the region stretched to deliver basic services in health and education, pooling knowledge and resources was crucial to ensure officials could “make every dollar count” to meet rising losses and damages,” said Kavitha Kasyanathan, Head of Development for the Embassy of Australia to Nepal. 

Key organizations from ICIMOD’s regional member countries, including government, academia, practitioners, NGOs, UN agencies, and tech-for-good, participated in the two-day event to launch the DRR Hub in person or online, including UNDRR, UNESCAP, UNDP, IFRC, and GLOMOS. 

Diana Patricia Mosquera Calle, Deputy Chief, Regional Office for Asia Pacific, UNDRR, voiced her strong support for the Hub, saying: “The United Nations’ Early Warnings for All initiative aims for universal coverage, but to meet the target of this ambitious and urgent global drive, we need countries to come together. That’s why we’re so supportive of this initiative.” 

Early Warnings for All (EW4All) seeks to ensure that everyone on Earth is protected from hazardous weather, water, or climate events through life-saving early warning systems by the end of 2027, through disaster risk knowledge and management; detection, observation, monitoring, analysis, and forecasting; warning dissemination and communication; preparedness and response capabilities. 

Anil Pokhrel, Chief Executive of Nepal’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority emphasized how important regional collaboration would be for EW4All to succeed. This is particularly critical in the HKH region given its complex geography, geopolitical sensitivities, and weather conditions.  

Sanjay Srivastava, Chief of DRR at the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), emphasized how important it was for early warnings to respond to the phenomenon of cascading and compounding hazards, saying “Floods are never floods alone; you also see the collapse of dams and culverts.” He encouraged partners to expand their focus from single-hazard to multi-hazard early warnings and anticipatory actions.

This event was organized with the support of the Australian Embassy in Nepal and Swiss Development Cooperation.  ICIMOD has more than a decade of experience in early warning systems and DRR across the Hindu Kush Himalayas, with its community-based systems winning the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Lighthouse Award in 2014, and this community-based early warning system has also been scaled to Africa.