23 March 2016
23.03.2016 - In the organization of the Environmental Protection Agency, specifically the Hydrometeorological Institute of Kosovo, today, March 23, World Meteorology Day was marked. On this occasion, students from primary and secondary schools visited the Institute's facilities, where they were informed up close about the work methodology and meteorological equipment.
The Deputy Minister of Environment and Spatial Planning, Mendim Rugova, said that the HIKO needs funds and institutional support because after the end of the war, Kosovo inherited a chaotic situation regarding the ecological state and the preservation of the environment in general.
These were heavy challenges for us, especially for the establishment of ecological institutions in this field to reorganize human capacities in the great absence of technical-technological potential, to be coherent with the advancement of this field.
These days we should remember and thank the employees of the Kosovo Hydrometeorological Institute for their work under difficult conditions, with significant shortages of funds and technological capacities, to inform citizens about the weather and to collect sufficient climate data, he said. The Director of the Hydrometeorological Institute, Letafete Latifi, said that this day is not marked by chance, but has a specific purpose, because every time on this day the World Meteorological Organization sends a message to raise awareness among international institutions, governments, civil society, and all actors who are part of the environment in which they live, regarding global meteorological issues that also impact the environment.
We, too, are here today to raise awareness among our government institutions about the message delivered by the World Organization for the year 2016. The organization's message is that we should face the future, for what we are seeing and observing, the changes that are happening in the world. Today the world is facing climate changes, rising temperatures, in some continents it is dealing with tsunamis, floods, and extreme weather phenomena. All of these, in one word, we call climate change, she said. According to her, Kosovo also needs to prepare for the consequences of climate change. Although Kosovo is not yet heavily affected, there are signals, she said. Meanwhile, the Chief Executive of the Kosovo Environmental Protection Agency (KEPA), Ilir Morina, stated that while the developed world has advanced much with advanced technology, Kosovo lacks financial means.
We have always sought basic support. Today we are struggling with a lack of staff, with a lack of projects that we know about, we have requested them while fully advancing the national field in the matter of meteorology. Also, the infrastructure in general requires intervention, improvement, and expansion of the networks, especially the automatic networks that today the whole world has. We still have many manual devices, he said.