Climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of flooding and droughts, which is in turn endangering water supplies and food security. At a side event entitled "Water management and flood risk reduction as adaptation strategies in Africa" at the 2019 UN climate change conference, experts presented innovative methods and technologies for improving water management in Africa and Asia.

Dr Karsten Hess from the BMBF unit for “Global change – climate, biodiversity” presented the funding measure CLIENT II before the two CLIENT II projects CLIMAFRI and RAIN presented themselves in more detail. The project CLIMAFRI is developing a river basin flood information system and associated adaptation strategies to reduce flood risks in the catchment area of the transboundary Mono River Basin between Togo and Benin. The project RAIN aims to combine an early flood warning system with intelligent water management and supply conceptsfor both rural and urban areas in Ghana that are threatened by both droughts and floods. Both projects are developing instruments such as improved forecasting models, with a focus on ensuring their effective implementation on the ground. The projects will also conduct training courses in the partner countries.

The side event was organised by the Science Policy Interface, an accompanying project to the CLIENT II funding measure and the panellists included Dr. Karsten Hess (BMBF), „Globaler Wandel – Klima, Biodiversität", Dr. Axel Paulsch, Institut für Biodiversität Netzwerk e.V (SPI), Dr. Yvonne Walz, United Nations University and . Akpamou Gbetey, Togo (CLIMAFRI), Sajjad Tabatabaei, RWTH Aachen University (RAIN), and Alex Chuang; JW Eco-Technology, Taiwan.

Click here for the project descriptions of CLIMAFRI and RAIN (in English), and the official press release (in German).