Slogans of World Meteorological Day - 2020
"Count Every Drop - Every Drop Counts"

Sanjenbam Jugeshwor Singh *

World Meteorological Day is observed on 23rd March every year; the day was established at the first International Meteorological Congress in Vienna, Austria in 1873 and on 23rd March 1950 International meteorological Organization became the World Meteorological organisation (WMO).

It is an Intergovernmental Organization with a membership of 193 Member states and territories. Every year 23rd march is Celebrated as "WORLD METEOROLOGICAL DAY" (WMD). The day plays a crucial role in contributing to people's safety and welfare. Its work is important in providing food security, water resources and transport. This day has been observed on 23rd March every year since 1961.

The WMO announces a slogan and the theme for WMD which is different each year. The theme of the World Meteorological Day this year (2020) is "CLIMATE & WATER". It will align with the theme of the World Water day 2020 which is on 22nd March. The main focus will be on climate change and water concerns around the Globe. The slogan for WMD 2020 is "Count Every Drop, Every Drop Counts".

We feel the effects of climate change mostly through water: more floods, more droughts, and more pollution. Just like viruses, these climate and water-related shocks respect no natural boundaries. The World needs to demonstrate the same unity and commitment to climate action and cutting greenhouse gas emissions as to containing the Coronavirus pandemic.

In the global distribution of rainfall are having a major impact in many countries. Sea levels are rising at an increasing pace, driven by melting of the largest glacier like in Greenland and Antarctica. This is exposing coastal areas and Island to a greater risk of flooding and submersion of low-lying areas.

With the increasingly unpredictable weather patterns can lead to more water stress which in turn will affect sustainable development and security. World Meteorological Day press release highlights the importance of water, "Amid the COVID-19 pandemic", an estimated 3 billion people worldwide lack basic hand washing facilities.

Over two billion people live in countries experiencing high water stress, while around four billion people face severe water scarcity for at least one month every year. By 2050, the world's demand for fresh water will be 20 to 30% higher than today.

The official World Meteorological day 2020 website has stated the theme as "fresh water is vital for life". On an average a human being cannot survive more than three days without it. Water is essential for the production of food, virtually all of our goods and services and for the environment.

The world now faces increasing challenges posed by water crisis, floods and droughts and lack of access to clean water supplies. There is an urgent need to improve forecasting, monitoring and management of water supplies and to tackle the problems of "too much, too little or too polluted water".

The theme will focus on frozen water, drought, floods and more. Climate change is causing the hydrological cycle to speed up as rising temperatures increases the rate of evaporation. More evaporation is causing more precipitation on average.

Higher evaporation and precipitation rates are not evenly distributed around the world. Some areas may experience heavier than normal precipitation and other areas may become prone to droughts as the traditional locations of rain belts and deserts shift in response to a changing climate.

Water related hazards like drought and flooding are thus becoming more serious and a much greater proportion of annual precipitation events rather than spread more evenly throughout the year. In many parts of the world, seasonal rainfall patterns are becoming more erratic, affecting agriculture and food security and livelihood of millions of people who work on the land.

According to the Intergovernmental panel on Climate Change (IPCC), rural areas are expected to experience major impacts on water availability and supply, food security, infrastructure and agricultural incomes including shifts in production areas of food and non-food crops as a result of climate change.

In urban areas, climate change is projected to increase risks for people assets, economies and ecosystem including risk from storms and extreme precipitation in land and coastal flooding, landslides, droughts, water scarcity, sea level rise and storm surges most river and fresh water bodies are trans-boundary and decision by one country on water resource management often have implications for other boundaries thus making water potential source for both peace and conflict.

Yet many countries lack the Capacity to monitor and analyse relevant data. This means that decision on major infrastructure projects like dams or hydro-electric plants as well as urban planning are often made on the basis of outdated or incomplete information.

Climate data and information underpin the management of surface water supplies and disaster risk reduction. This includes calculation of the frequency and duration heavy rainfall, the probable maximum precipitation and flood forecasting. Such data on weekly, seasonal and annual time scale and at national, regional and local levels are now more essential than ever.

The WMO- spearheaded Global Framework for Climate Services, thus has water as one of its top priorities and seeks to promote a holistic integrated water Resources Management approach as the best way forward for efficient, equitable and sustainable development and management of the World's limited water resources and coping with conflicting demands.

WMO and Global Water Partnership build on existing initiatives, including integrated programmes on flood and drought management. An integrated, cross-sector approach to water resource management is vital because water investments are spread across many institutions and different levels of government.

Sustainable development Goal-6 sets ambitious 2030 targets for clean water and sanitation, including integrated water resources management at all levels. As part of efforts to drive forward the sustainable development goals, a high level panel was set up. In March 2018, it issued a report entitled" Making Every Drop Count "with recommendations.