Khabar Khair (Only Good News)

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the European Union (EU), in close collaboration with the Yemen Civil Aviation and Meteorology Authority (CAMA), has established an automatic marine weather station at Aden’s Sea port.

The marine station: a first of its kind in Yemen, is one out of nine modern automatic weather stations established throughout the country by FAO with financial support from the European Union, to improve the way in which meteorological data is collected.

Given the increased frequency and intensity of climatic shocks such as floods, droughts, cyclones and heatwaves that have led to catastrophic agricultural losses in Yemen, the availability of accurate meteorological data will not only improve weather forecasting, it will also help with the establishment of effective early warning systems and inform the planning of agriculture sector responses in a country that continues to face alarmingly high levels of food insecurity.

The data received by the recently launched station will also provide information on the state of the sea, reducing the risks faced by over 100 000 small-scale fishers, to whom the lack of real-time climatic information on when they can go to sea can cost them their lives.

The Head of Cooperation for the EU Delegation to Yemen, Karolina Hedström noted how the marine station will work to reduce risks to fishers’ lives and livelihoods posed by climate change and variability, building on the EU’s overall support to agriculture livelihoods in Yemen.

In the same vein, FAO Representative in Yemen, Dr Hussein Gadain, emphasized the criticality of accurate weather information for agriculture livelihoods.

” Meteorological data can save lives and is important not only for fisher folk, but also for farmers, various entities working in agriculture, marine navigation, research and other industries that rely on climate information” , he explained.

Dr. Gadain expressed his gratitude to the European Union for its support, which builds on past and existing EU-funded programmes implemented by FAO in Yemen to address food insecurity and strengthen the resilience of the most vulnerable households.

For his part, the Chairman of CAMA thanked FAO and the European Union for supporting the establishment of the first automatic marine weather station in Yemen and added that the station, along with the other eight automatic weather stations established under the partnership with FAO and EU, will significantly enhance meteorological and navigation data collection in Yemen.