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Jeddah - Yasmine El Tohamy - Saudi Arabia elected chair of UN panel on cyclones in Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal
JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia has been unanimously elected to chair the UN panel tasked with monitoring cyclones in the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal, the Kingdom's meteorology office said on Wednesday.
The appointment to the 13-nation member World Meteorological Organization/United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (WMO/ESCAP) Panel on Tropical Cyclones in the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea is just the latest in the Kingdom's growing involvement in world affairs.
Ayman bin Salem Ghulam, CEO of Saudi Arabia's National Center for Meteorology (NCM), said the appointment is a "testament to the country’s pioneering role and its commitment to addressing critical issues related to disasters and their significant impact on humanity, both regionally and internationally."
In a statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency (SPA), Ghulam highlighted the importance of strengthening monitoring and forecasting systems to accurately predict cyclones and improving preparedness measures to minimize loss of life and property.
He further highlighted the increasing frequency of tropical cyclones in the region and the world, which requires all nations to play a larger role in addressing such challenges.
Tasked to promote measures to improve tropical cyclone warning systems in the region, the panel was organized in 1972 in the aftermath of "Bhola", the world’s deadliest tropical cyclone that killed more than 300,000 people in Bangladesh in November 1970.
From six original members (Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Thailand), the panel grew to 13 with Maldives, Oman, and Yemen joining at different times. Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE and Iran, became the latest members in 2018.
A report published by the ReliefWeb https://reliefweb.int/ of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) noted that the panel has successfully tracked and monitored countless tropical cyclones, "providing accurate early warnings that led to targeted evacuations and saving tens of thousands at risk."
ReliefWeb cited the region's experiences with Cyclone Mocha and Cyclone Biparjoy as among the latest proof of the effectiveness of cross-border collaboration involving real-time data sharing and risk information exchange.
Mocha, which emerged from the Bay of Bengal on May 14, 2023, hit Myanmar with sustained winds of 180-190 km/h, violent gusts, and torrential rainfall, causing widespread flooding in the impoverished state.
"Mocha made the landfall in a most vulnerable context of compounding poverty, inequality and environmental degradation. However, the impact differed significantly from the 2008 devastation caused by Cyclone Nargis, a storm as powerful as Cyclone Mocha, which resulted in the loss of over 138,000 lives in Myanmar," the report said.
On June 26, 2023, Biparjoy, emerging from the Arabian Sea with wind speed of 140 kph, hit densely populated parts of India’s west coast of Gujarat state, but no casualties were recorded, the report noted.
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