Study urges investment in weather stations and climate science for African nations

By the Climate Centre

Of a total of seven World Weather Attribution studies that produced inconclusive results, four focused on weather events in Africa, WWA scientists said yesterday.

“Investment in climate science and weather stations in Africa is needed to help countries understand changing extremes and prepare for the future,” the researchers said, as part of a rapid study of recent disastrously heavy rainfall in Kinshasa province that the IFRC Africa region said caused 33 deaths.   

The study found similar downpours are expected every two years and could become heavier with climate change, but the scientists could not quantify its influence because of a lack of reliable data characteristic of the Sub-Saharan Africa.

Joyce Kimutai, a WWA researcher at Imperial College London, said yesterday: “Africa needs more attribution studies. We need to understand how our countries are being impacted by climate change and prepare for the future.

“Unfortunately, the global datasets we rely on often perform poorly in Africa, making it difficult to accurately quantify how climate change is increasing extreme downpours like the recent ones in Kinshasa.

“As an African scientist, this is incredibly frustrating … Our continent has contributed just 3 to 4 per cent of global emissions, but is getting pummelled by extreme weather and still isn’t receiving funding for adaptation promised by wealthy countries at global climate summits.”

The Red Cross in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, of which Kinshasa is the capital, fielded nearly 200 volunteers to assist nearly 2,000 people displaced by the downpours in early April (photo).

‘Our continent contributes just 3 to 4 per cent of global emissions – it’s pummelled by extreme weather but isn’t receiving adaptation funding promised by wealthy countries’

Data from two weather-stations in Kinshasa indicated that week-long spells of rainfall have become up to nearly 20 per cent more intense since 1960.

The most recent global assessment by the IPCC says: “Exposure of people, assets and infrastructure to climate hazards is increasing in Africa compounded by rapid urbanization, infrastructure deficit, and growing population in informal settlements.”

The Climate Centre’s Policy and Resilience Adviser, Shaban Mawanda, noted that “Kinshasa is a densely populated city of around 18 million people. Many rivers flow through the city and when they burst their banks, the consequences can be devastating.

“There is a need for stronger laws and policies on critical sectors such as risk management and settlements … ”.

In December 2022, IFRC-DREF issued a humanitarian grant of nearly 400,000 Swiss francs to help the DRC Red Cross assist 9,000 of the people most severely affected by major flooding in Kinshasa: 16 of the 24 communes in the province suffered damage that was still being assessed the following January.

The latest WWA study included scientists from universities and meteorological agencies in the DRC itself as well as the Netherlands, Rwanda, Sweden, the UK and the US.

DRC Red Cross volunteers assisting people displaced by torrential rain earlier this month in Kinshasa – one of the world’s fastest-growing megacities – and the surrounding province. (Photo: IFRC)