Malawi commends Britain for MET donation

Malawi government has commended Britain for the donation of  400 archiving boxes to Malawi’s Department of Climate Change and Meteorological Services following a recommendation by a team of meteorological experts from UK during their visit to the Department in April 2013.

Minister of Resources, Energy and Mining, Atupele Muluzi, who officially received the archiving boxes from the Deputy British High Commissioner to Malawi Martin Scales on Tuesday in Blantyre, said the boxes will be used for safe storage of manuscripts at the Department, which contain historical climate records originating from various meteorological stations including volunteer rainfall stations in the country.

“The boxes donated today are durable and waterproof, easily transferable and capable of storing large volumes of manuscripts of data.

“The boxes also offer tidiness and easy keeping of manuscripts, thereby saving us from losing the valuable historical climate records,” said Muluzi.

According to him, weather and climate change affect many sectors of the global economy including the national economies in Malawi.

Muluzi therefore said such data and information is “critical for national development” and “critical drivers for human survival and poverty reduction worldwide”.

“Hence critical for socio-economic development of any country. Proper archiving of such records, however, requires huge investment and assistance from other development partners like the British Government,” said Muluzi.

Muluzi and the Deputy High Commissioner also took time to visit the Department’s Television Weather Studio, Weather and Climate Services Centre and Communication and Climate Information Centre.

On his part, Scales said the Department should be highly supported to provide reliable, responsive and high quality weather, climate and climate change service to meet national, regional and international obligations through timely dissemination of accurate and up-to-date data and information for socio-economic development.