On 25th February, the project “Strengthening Climate Information and Early Warning System in Cambodia to Support Climate Resilient Development and Adaptation to Climate Change” granted by the CCCA3 innovation grant and implemented by People in Need (PIN) Cambodia came to an end.
The project delivered its key results to develop flood hazard and extent maps under varying scenarios to recommend the flood mitigation for Battambang city; to install the fixed public speakers; and to develop training materials, public awareness training, technical training to community groups, to PCDM and Battambang municipal on installation, operation, and maintenance of the urban EWS system. Within the successful implementation, the project also faced some challenges regarding the capacity building on operating and maintaining including financial management for local people, authorities and stakeholders for a long run of the EWS. Moreover, there is a need for technological improvements to alerts dissemination. Therefore, the development of the Facebook channel for alerts’ broadcasting will be finalized and the link between EWS1294 platform and the social media operationalized. The dissemination and trainings will be further improved in the near future while the capacity and number of the speakers will be upgraded and installed, respectively, across the riskprone areas in Battambang to enlarge the outreach of the system.
The project is expected to enlarge the scope of urban EWS, replicating the achievements in Battambang in additional risk-prone areas. The closing workshop of the project was presided over by Dr. Hak Mao. He thanked the PIN, DCC and CCCA3, and all key stakeholders for the successfully implemented project that crucially responds to climate change adaptation in the province. He also recognized that the stakeholders play an essential role in ensuring the sustainability of the data and information system not limited to people in Battambang but also in general in Cambodia.
In addition, he noted that the enabling approach to integrate these recommendations into strategy and policy documents used should be scaled up to all Cambodian cities and that would strengthen urban resilience to floods among vulnerable populations. The long-term success of this project is ultimately dependent on the engagement of the local authorities and data sharing to from the evidence-base for this technical innovation.
