Transcript
KOSI LATU: It needs to build capacity. It needs to have trained people. You know you can't just try to do something without the people so we have been helping out and actually training Tokelauans to take up the challenge. At the moment they have got two people but they are looking at expanding that. That's the key thing. It's building capacity, getting people to be trained, building the capacity, so that you start from somewhere.
DON WISEMAN: In the case of Tokelau where is that assistance going to come from. That capacity building assistance?
KL: There are a number of ways. New Zealand being the country in close political ties with Tokelau - part of that support comes from them, Samoa and also Fiji and the region.
DW: When you have such a small place population wise, as Tokelau or Niue, is it feasible for them to have a fully functioning 24 hour, seven day a week weather service?
KL: That's a good point. So they are looking at what is feasible for them. And as I said it is not just the smallness in terms of population, it is also terms of distance. In the case of Tokelau you have got three atoll groups that are not very close to each other - it takes about four or five hours by boat to get to another. They are just in the process of establishing something that would provide capacity in support of meteorological support services. They don't really have a fully-fledged met service like other countries but they do need some capacity support.
DW: In terms of weather systems and weather reporting where does an organisation like SPREP fit in, what is your role?
TL: In terms of meteorological services support SPREP is the regional hub for it. What I mean by that is we are a regional organisation so we provide that regional support to the countries through a number of ways. First of all we have to bring the national met service directors together to discuss issues that are of common interest and concern to them. Secondly a few years ago we established the Pacific Meteorological Council which formalises the coming together of national met service directors. That enables them not only to discuss issues of concern but then they can look at issues of funding, capacity building, donor support and so forth. The next level is the ministers' meeting and so that high level only stated about two years ago. First time we have a met ministers meeting was in Tonga in July 2015 and this year [in Honiara will be the second such meeting. The other thing we have got to remember is that met services in the Pacific historically have not received the kind of attention that it does now. It is now beginning to see enormous interest, it is now elevated to much higher level in terms of political attention than ever before.
DW: One of the messages from that is that governments clearly need to come up with significantly more money to ensure that these services can be maintained at that higher level.
KL: Absolutely. That's true and as I said I think there is now an acceptance, and increased awareness at the political level of how important met services is. Ten years ago the level of interest was quite minimal. But when you start talking climate change then people start realising that the need for, for example, climate services, is so critical in understanding climate change.
