Institutional Cooperation between Finland and Nepal in meteorological services; 2nd Phase

Description What is done in the programme or project and why, what results are pursued, who benefits from the activities and who are involved in the implementation.

The Finnish Meteorological Institute has carried out institutional cooperation (ICI) with the Nepalese counterpart Department of Hydrology and Meteorology (DHM) in the years 2010-2012. The second phase of the ICI-cooperation is carried out during 2013-2015 with a total budget of 493 479 EUR. The main aim of the project is to strengthen the capacity of the DHM to make forecasts and provide weather services. DHM is an organization under the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment in Nepal. DHM has a mandate from Government to monitor all the hydrological and meteorological activities in Nepal. The scope of work includes the monitoring of river hydrology, climate, agrometeorology, sediment, air quality, water quality, limnology, snow hydrology, glaciology, and wind and solar energy. General and aviation weather forecasts are the regular services provided by DHM. As a member of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), DHM contributes to the global exchange of meteorological data on a regular basis. The second phase of the Finnish-Nepalese cooperation project will continue to respond to the development needs of DHM. The main technology and service areas of DHM development are: data management, introducing new advanced technology, improvement of weather forecasting (3-day forecasts) and enhancing services for the society. All of these areas need capacity building. The project will support improvement of the DHM´s capacity to plan and develop hydrological and meteorological observation networks, data management, utilization of hydrometeorological data, and provision of hydrometeorological services to the community and the industry. This will benefit all citizens of Nepal equally.