Why mainstreaming meteorological services is a regrettable decision

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OPINION

By Eng. Solomon W. Mangeni

On Wednesday April 17, 2024, Parliament passed a Bill to mainstream Uganda National Meteorological Authority (UNMA) into the Ministry of Water and Environment.

Considering the value of meteorological services to the socio-economic transformation of the country and that UNMA is bound by both international and regional obligations, the move by Parliament is regrettable.

Meteorological services are under the stewardship of World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) — the United Nations Agency in charge of Meteorology. UNMA is the focal institution for the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). So, UNMA provides policy makers with regular scientific assessments on climate change, its implications and future risks.

Uganda is a signatory to the WMO Convention, Chicago Convention, African Ministerial Conference on Meteorology (AMCOMET) and the East African Treaty, all of which resolved, among others, to have all national neteorological and hydrological services (NMHS) as semi-autonomous institutions. So, mainstreaming meteorological services is a retrogressive step, here is why:

Regionally, Uganda is a partner state to the East African Treaty of 1999, which under Article 100 provides for meteorological services and inter alia calls on member states to harmonise policies for the provision of meteorological services. It is in line with this, that the sectoral council on Transport, Communications and Meteorology (TCM), which is one of the established organs of EAC as provided in article 9(1)(d), implored all NMHS within member states to become semi-autonomous.

Uganda led the way that resulted in the formation of UNMA. This was re-echoed during the 18th TCM meeting, which was held in Bujumbura Burundi from February 6-10, 2023. It was reiterated that Burundi, Kenya and South Sudan should expedite the transformation of their meteorological departments to meteorological authorities as directed by the 16th TCM.

In East Africa, the Tanzania Meteorology Agency and Rwanda Meteorological Agency are semi-autonomous NMHS in their respective countries. Kenya is in the final stages of forming Kenya Meteorological Service Authority having passed the Meteorology Bill 2023. To keep with the global pace, why would Uganda take such a retrogressive step?

The semi-autonomous status of NMHS is vital for the provision of efficient and effective weather and climate services for disaster risk reduction and socio-economic development and environment protection as well as building resilience to the adverse impacts of climate change.

The achievements realised under UNMA weren’t possible in the nearly 38 years of existence as a department of meteorology, which was moved through seven different ministries, including the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development without a fitting mandate to be attached to.

It is important for Ugandans to note that the rationalisation of UNMA will carry with it several undesired consequences as enumerated below:

Decline in services contribution to the regularity, efficiency and safety of air navigation, which is an international obligation that UNMA conducts. The aviation industry in Uganda is wholly dependent on meteorological services provided by UNMA.

The country is likely to struggle when it comes to international air space regulatory audits by ICAO who demand that for air navigation, the meteorological service be provided by an ISO-certified institution. UNMA stands to lose the ISO9011; 2015 certification once mainstreamed and this has far-reaching consequences on the operations of the aviation industry, including the risk of closing the airspace.

It is important to note that Uganda is poised for growth in the aviation industry with Hoima International Airport soon opening and more development is being planned. Our counterparts UCAA can bear witness on this. Inadequate support to critical sectors of the economy that silently, but heavily depend on weather such as security, tourism, agricultural production, water resource management, infrastructure and road construction, energy sector planning and development, health and disaster preparedness to name just a few.

As the county battles the glaring impacts of climate change, the country needs a stronger and efficient meteorological service to formulate research-based climate change policies. The move of mainstreaming UNMA into the Ministry of Water and Environment is not only a wrong, but also exposes the country to the impacts of a changing climate since the country will lose a strategic position for service delivery and negotiation at all levels.

In conclusion, if rationalised, the achievements registered by UNMA in the last eight years are likely to be reduced to what they were in its former state under the department of meteorology.

The highly trained meteorological personnel are likely to leave the service in search of greener pastures. As a country, we need to be aware of these implications.

Uganda needs to strengthen UNMA’s capacity to provide weather and climate services in the view of sustainable socio-economic transformation. I, therefore, appeal to the President to retain UNMA as a semi-autonomous institution.

The writer is the manager, engineering and ICT at Uganda National Meteorological Authority (UNMA)