Organisations and professionals that monitor and manage drought often experience difficulties in communicating the complexities of drought to the public. Also the media who write about drought are often criticised for sensationalising the issues by highlighting empty reservoirs and dry river beds and scaring people rather than informing them about what they can do to lessen the impacts.

This guide offers to bridge the gap between water professionals and the media. Water professionals have a responsibility to present information to the media that is factual, straight forward, with fewer numbers and statistics, and likely to stimulate media and public interest. Equally, the media need to use their presentation skills to go beyond sensationalism and find ways of arousing deeper public interest in drought so that people are empowered to engage in actions that can avoid many of the serious problems that droughts bring.

This guide will be of value to both water professionals and journalists. For journalists, the guide sets out what people really need to know about drought, the steps that professionals are taking to reduce the impacts of drought, and how people can benefit from engaging in reducing the risks. For water professionals the guide offers experiences of working with the media to communicate drought in ways that increase public interest and engagement. For both, selected case studies demonstrate the many facets of drought and how professionals and the media can work together for the public benefit. The guide concludes with some principles and good practices to help improve communications between water professionals, the media, and the public.

This guide is compiled by the Integrated Drought Management Programme Central and Eastern Europe (IDMP CEE) to help communicate drought in Central and Eastern Europe, and is based on available literature and findings from relevant works wherever possible. The Guide addresses the communication needs of media, practitioners, and policymakers. This is a living document and will be updated based on the experiences of its readers. IDMP CEE encourages experts engaged in the management of drought and media involved in environmental issues in CEE region and beyond to participate in the enrichment of this publication. For this purpose, comments and other inputs are cordially invited. Authorship and contributions will be appropriately acknowledged. Please kindly submit your inputs to: gwpcee [at] gwpcee.org (gwpcee[at]gwpcee[dot]org). Subject: “How to communicate drought in Central and Eastern Europe”.

The Global Water Partnership Central and Eastern Europe (GWP CEE), is an international network, which comprises 12 Country Water Partnerships in Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine and more than 200 partners located in 15 countries. Its mission is to advance governance and management of water resources for sustainable and equitable development. GWP CEE is a part of global network that consists of thirteen regions across the world.

Integrated Drought Management Programme for Central and Eastern Europe (IDMP CEE) supports the governments of Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine in the development of drought management policies and plans. It also builds capacity of stakeholders at different levels for proactive integrated drought management approach and tests innovative approaches for future drought management plans. It is part of the Integrated Drought Management Programme (IDMP), which was launched by WMO and GWP at the High-level Meeting on National Drought Policy in March 2013. Further information on the IDMP is available at www.droughtmanagement.info