By Dawan Africa - Reporter
Mogadishu(Mogadishu24)-Global environmental disasters are worsening. Last year was the hottest year ever recorded. By 2030, environmental disasters are expected to happen daily, including wildfires, droughts, hurricanes, floods, and melting ice caps.
Least-developed nations that contribute the least to climate change suffer the most. In Somalia, climate disasters paint a bleak picture: farmers stand in barren fields without crops, wells run dry, and rivers burst their banks, spreading diseases. The situation worsened in 2023, as extreme weather events claimed more lives and displaced nearly 900,000 people.
The solution isn't short-term fixes but long-term climate adaptation. One effective approach is early warning systems. UN Secretary-General António Guterres has announced a plan to ensure that everyone on earth will be covered by such systems within five years, as these are among the most effective and cost-efficient ways to save lives and mitigate the economic impact of climate disasters.
Telecom providers like Hormuud are crucial to making this mission a reality. With our expansive reach into rural communities and technological capacity, we’ve been able to roll out an early warning system that alerts Somalis to risk of flooding and other exteme weather events.
For the system to really work, we made sure it was tailored to the local context. In Somalia, where the literacy rate is low, our early warning system utilises ringtones as a method of alerting users. When a disaster, such as flooding or severe weather is predicted, Hormuud changes the dial tone on customer’s phones to broadcast early warning messages.
Similarly, Nepal's Community-Based Flood Early Warning System (CBFEWS) is designed to address the local context by involving communities themselves in flood preparedness. Local caretakers monitor water levels and use simple, low-cost technology to send real-time alerts through sirens, megaphones, and mobile messages.
But when it comes to rolling these systems out at scale, and therefore, achieving António Guterres goal, there is still more to be done. To implement an effective early warning system, you need private-public sector collaboration in two key areas: funding and regulatory support.
The private sector supplies the necessary technology and innovation to create country- tailored systems. However, public sector support is crucial afterward. The public sector ensures these systems are sustainable and accessible, especially in low-income and rural areas, by implementing supportive regulations and integrating systems with disaster management frameworks. This involves making sure rules are followed, encouraging everyone to work together, and providing the money and infrastructure needed.
I am proud to say, in Somalia, we’ve been progressively creating an environment for such public-private partnerships to deliver climate solutions. We have signed a public-private partnership with the Ministry of Environment to help even the hardest-to-reach communities become more climate resilient. We’ve also launched 5G in the country, which is essential for IOT risk-management systems to run.
Recently, we also signed the GSMA’s Humanitarian Connectivity Charter, committing to providing connectivity during emergencies and working closely with humanitarian organisations to deliver optimal assistance during climate-related crises.
We’re committed to backing our community in the face of climate crises. We call on all stakeholders, both private and public, to enhance their efforts, particularly in areas most impacted by climate shocks. The urgency to act together has never been greater.
