January-June 2022
With the help of NOAA Funds, Global Water Partnership Central and Easter Europe (GWP CEE), Drought Management Centre Southeastern Europe (DMCSEE), Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (ZRC SAZU) and Global Change Research Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences (CzechGlobe) came together to further empower hydrometeorological institutions in the Drin Basin countries in implementing integrated drought management. The activities built on IDMP concept and enabled the transfer of results achieved in the DriDanube project also to countries outside Danube Basin. Involved in the partnership at the local level were Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment, Kosovo Inter-Ministerial Water Council (Kosovo), Kosovo Hydrometeorological Institute, Sector of Hydrology and Hydrological Forecasts (Kosovo), Polytechnic University of Tirana, Institute of GeoSciences, Department of Hydrology (Albania), Balkan Foundation of Sustainable Development (North Macedonia), and National Hydrometeorological Service (North Macedonia).
This capacity-building-oriented project scoped on two tools available in wider region, the Drought Watch tool for harmonised regional drought monitoring, and National Drought Reporting Network for regular and standardized evidence of on-field drought impacts. An important part of the project were several supervision sessions,which offered lots of room for discussions and exchange of good practices and experiences between the experts, such as on possibilities for Drought Watch tool for hosting Drin Basin drought-related data, on methods for calculation of drought-related indices and risk assessment, ways to begin establishing National Reporting Networks, as well as on establishing hydrological drought monitoring and its early warning system.
During the final creative workshop, the partnership discussed future prospect and desired direction of partnership activities in the next 3-5 years. The involved institutions concluded to continue the established cooperation, recognizing this project was an important kick-start to develop capacities, required to tackle the increasing drought related threads in years to come.