Luanda – African meteorological officials will meet for the first time in Nairobi, Kenya, from March 15-19 next year, to analyse matters related to environment and meteorology on the continent.

 
The information was released to Angop in Luanda by Filipe Domingos Freires Lúcio, a high ranking official of the Division for Reduction of Risks of Disasters of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), a United Nations institution.

According to the official who attended the 3rd annual conference of the Southern Africa Meteorological Association (MASA), held in Luanda from October 26-28, at the WMO meeting the African ministers will discuss the great problems, constraints and challenges facing the sector in the continent.

 
“Africa is a continent that over the last 30 years has practically recorded a drop in the quality of observation, which means that there has been less (climatic) observation in the continent nowadays, as compared with what used to be three decades ago”, he stressed.

 
The source stated as well that the continent will be negatively affected by the impacts of climatic changes, hence the urgent need for African countries to adopt strategies to define, handle and overcome the great challenges facing it in climate observation.

 
Another aspect to be addressed at  the meeting, the source said, has to do with the need for a regional cooperation in the sector, with a view to a share of existing ccapacities, both at the level of regional centres and States.

 
According to the WMO official, the first African ministerial conference will also facilitate a better articulation of cooperation strategies in the domain of meteorology, with a view to an improvement to the sector in all countries of the continent.

 
The third element being analysed at the meeting is the need for the development of special services for decision making in weather and climate sensitive sectors like those of agriculture, food security, management of water resources, energy and tourism.