National consultation: Morocco intends to consolidate its national system in order to improve the anticipation and management of natural disasters.
The consolidation of multi-actor governance, the strengthening of national and regional capacities and the integration of technological innovation constitute the main levers identified to strengthen the national early warning system in the face of natural risks, underlined, Wednesday in Casablanca, the Director General of Meteorology, Mohamed Dkhissi. Speaking at the opening of the work of the National Consultation on the early warning system for all, Mr. Dkhissi highlighted the progress made by the General Directorate of Meteorology (DGM) in strengthening the national early warning system, in particular through the modernization of the national meteorological observation network, the improvement of digital weather modeling and the strengthening of the skills of technical teams. The official stressed, however, that the quality of weather forecasts and the relevance of alerts, although essential, represent only the starting point of an effective warning system. According to him, real success lies in the ability to get information to each exposed citizen, so that they can take appropriate action at the appropriate time.
“An alert only has value if it is actually received, understood and followed by action,” he said, believing that the protection of populations depends on the effectiveness of the entire chain going from forecasting to communication, then to operational response. Furthermore, Mr. Dkhissi stressed that advances recorded in the fields of digital technology, mobile applications, artificial intelligence and social networks offer new perspectives for improving the dissemination of alerts in real time, adapting messages to the audiences concerned and strengthening their reach to the most remote areas. Regarding the components of a multi-risk early warning system, the official explained that it is based on four fundamental pillars, namely knowledge of natural risks, observation and monitoring, communication and dissemination of alerts as well as intervention and response intended to reduce the impacts of disasters. He also underlined that this system has already demonstrated its effectiveness in the face of several natural hazards that have affected the Kingdom, noting that the ambition is to continue the modernization of the Moroccan disaster risk reduction system in order to raise it to the best international standards.
The National Consultation on the early warning system for all, organized by the DGM, began Wednesday in Casablanca, as part of the United Nations “Early Warnings for All” (EW4All) initiative. This meeting, which continues until June 26, is part of the international ambition carried by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), aiming to guarantee universal coverage of populations by efficient, inclusive and fully operational early warning systems by 2027.
