Need for early warning communication strategy to support flood risk management in Kwale: Status of early warning communication without a strategy
This paper addresses the need for an early warning communication strategy to support flood risk management in Kwale, Kenya. It examines the status of early warning communication without a strategy. To ensure that the early warning triggers appropriate early actions towards risk of a hazard, the warning has to be understood. Therefore, the main objective of communication is to not only deliver an early warning about a specific disaster risk in a region, but primarily to empower people to take action and to initiate mitigation measures before a disaster occurs . To reach this goal, early warning communication must be able to address threatened persons or communities.
To improve the efficiency of flood early warning in the Kwale county, the paper recommends the following:
- Operationalization of the Kwale county flood early warning communication strategy developed under KADAP project, to ensure early warning information trickles down to the vulnerable community.
- The county to partner with early warning information producers to scale up programs to sensitize county stakeholders on use of early warning information in disaster risk management.
- Early warning information producers to understand needs of the vulnerable communities in Kwale and begin engaging stakeholders to co-produce actionable early warning information as well as build user capacity building to interpret and use of the information for preparedness actions.
- The county to allocate funds to cater for the communication of early warning information.
- Sharing of rainfall information from the upper catchment of River Umber which is located in the neighboring Tanzania, to inform anticipation of rising water levels in River Umber.
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