A 24-hour warning of an oncoming storm or heatwave can reduce casualties and damage to property by 30 percent.
Flood warnings alone can prevent 33 percent of the damage. Weather prediction services can result in 20 to 60 percent reduction of losses during disasters.
These are the cost benefits of regional investments in multi-hazard early warning systems (MHEWS), confirmed in a study 20 years after the Trust Fund for Tsunami, Disaster and Climate Preparedness was created in 2004. It was also conducted 13 years after the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System (IOTWMS) was set up in 2011.
The results were presented by Temily Baker, program management officer, of the Disaster Risk Reduction Section of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).
"The transboundary nature of Asia Pacific Region's riskscape call for transboundary solutions. Cooperation is critical for seamless end-to-end MHEWS or the Multi-Hazard Early Warning System, especially for low capacity countries, least developed countries, and small island developing states," Baker said during the session on "Regional Cooperation to Amplify 'Early Warning for All (EW4All)' Investments" at the Asia Pacific Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction held in Manila Oct. 14-17.
"Cooperation mechanisms succeed in expanding early action financing, early-warning-related technology, transboundary advocacy for resilience-building and essential early warning service provision," she said.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)has invested in regional and national MHEWS, localized disaster responses and anticipatory actions, since the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, and in line with the call of the United Nations to give every human access to early information on disaster threats by 2027. But more needs to be done.
In its 2023 report, the United Nations said only 101 countries have established MHEWS and many low capacity and least developed countries are in the Asia Pacific Region where most of the disasters happen. The UN wants all humans to be protected by MHEWS by 2027 and says the world needs to invest US$3.1 billion to achieve that.
Representatives from Thailand, Cambodia, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, the Asian Development Bank, the United Kingdom Meteorological Office, the Regional Integrated Multi-Hazard Early Warning System (RIMES) and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO, discussed the issue during the forum.
Tull Traisorat, Thailand's ambassador to the Philippines, recalled the historic US$10-million investment made by his country in 2005, in the ESCAP's Multi-Donor Tsunami Trust Fund, which was later renamed to reflect the expansion of its mandate in 2010. Since then, Bangladesh, Germany, India, Japan, Nepal, the Philippines, Sweden, Italy, the Netherlands, Turkey and Switzerland enlarged the fund to US$16.1 million.
The trust fund led to the establishment of the Regional Integrated MHEWS for Africa and Asia (RIMES, 2009), and the IOTWMS in 2011. Its mandate expanded in 2010 and so did the IOTWMS' geographic scope in 2015, to cover the small island developing states (SIDS) in the Southwestern Pacific.
The IOTWMS is further reinforced by the services and investments from India, Australia, and Indonesia to help low-capacity countries improve their early warning systems and unify procedures in the Northwest-Indian Ocean area, which is at high risk for tsunamis.
Traisora supported a "robust multi-hazard early warning systems" not only inside countries but more so, in the entire Asia Pacific Region, to which ASEAN belongs. He batted for sustained investments in new technologies to improve MHEWS.
He urged all stakeholders to keep on promoting "how these systems save lives and amplify the benefits of a system in addressing cross-border disasters," to strengthen cooperation and pooling of resources for regional early warning systems.
When the 2004 tsunami hit Thailand, killing 230,000 people, "we had no warning system then," said Bhumrindra Tauvarotama, plan and policy analyst of Thailand's National Disaster Warning Center at the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation, Tauvarotama said.
Since then, Thailand has invested in MHEWS for tsunamis and has been conducting drills and exercises. Disaster risk management is now incorporated in national and community planning within the context of building back better, the department's website stated. Thailand's National Disaster Warning Center monitors all types of disasters and hazards and disseminates early warning to people in areas at risk.
Dr. Seth Vannareth, advisor at Cambodia's Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology, and its representative to the World Meteorological Organization, said they hold trainings and workshops to keep their MHEWS — the Early Warning System (EWS) 1294 — set up in 2013, effective.
The Philippines' Department of Science and Technology will complete its MHEWS in 2027.
In a statement, the ASEAN reiterated its commitment to leverage science and technology in continually improving and adapting MHEWS. Singapore is the most advanced in the field.