DUSHANBE, November 28, 2008, Asia-Plus  -- On Thursday November 27, the World Bank team in partnership and with support of Tajikistan’s State Enterprise for Hydrometeorology (Tajikhydromet) conducted a consultation workshop for the ministries and state agencies of the Tajikistan, interested stakeholders and representatives of donor community to discuss main preliminary findings and recommendations of the World Bank’s technical assistance on how to improve weather and climate service delivery in Tajikistan, press release issued by the World Bank Dushanbe Office today said. 

This work is a part of a broader technical assistance project funded by the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) and implemented by the World Bank in Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan.

Representatives of ministries and state agencies of the Republic Tajikistan and donors attended the half day workshop.

The main objectives of the workshop were (i) to present overall context, goals and  preliminary results of the technical assistance work; (ii) to discuss with main beneficiaries the importance of modernization of the Tajikhydromet, and development of its services and information as an essential element to capture additional economic benefits related to the efficient use of hydrometeorological information, and to improve disaster risk management;  (iii) to present a draft action plan for improving weather and climate service delivery in the Republic of Tajikistan and discuss options of its implementation in view of the Bank''s regional experience and donors’ potential interest.

Main presentations delivered during the workshop covered areas such as impact of hydrometeorological hazards on economy of the Republic of Tajikistan, including climate change aspects, needs assessment of weather dependent sectors, hydromet services modernization issues, assessment of economic benefits of Tajikhydromet’ potential modernization.

The hydrometeorological services in Tajikistan are significantly underfunded, as their importance for the economy is not being duly acknowledged. Tajikhydromet experiences capacity deficiencies due to sparse, deteriorating observation network and weak telecommunications networks, deficient IT and numerical modeling capacity, and some institutional capacity issues. As a result the economy of Tajikistan is missing potential gains, which could be obtained with rising the accuracy and value of hydrometeorological information and services. Much more could be done to mitigate weather disasters, support the productivity of smallholding and commercial agriculture, conserve energy, efficiently produce and transmit electricity, contribute to water management issues, and promote safe transport. Although capacity deficiencies are serious, they could be remedied significantly by relatively modest – but sustained – investments.

Development of the Tajikhydromet’s action plan for improvement of service delivery and making these improvements sustainable will contribute to addressing national needs in enhancing disaster risk reduction and mitigation of weather hazards and key climate change impacts.