The concept of WHYCOS , which recognizes that hydrological data collection and water related information sharing have their greatest value in the context of the contribution they can provide to sustainable development, has proven its viability over more than 10 years of the programme implementation. New projects are being proposed by countries and in the present context of great attention to the potential water crises, donors and development partners are aware of the need of building or strengthening the knowledge bases which is a prerequisite for any development action. Furthermore the impacts of global change, in particular climate change, on water cycle and regime, with the ensuing effect on human community, require a large amount of reliable data to be analysed, monitored and possibly forecast.

The basin being the natural framework for the management of water resources, WHYCOS, though global as a programme, has since the beginning focused its implementation on regional components corresponding as much as possible to great internationally shared basin (as it is the case for Niger-HYCOS and Volta-HYCOS), or on regional economic grouping with strong interest in water sector (such as in the case of SADC-HYCOS and IGAD-HYCOS).

This regional approach not only has allowed the different components to be developed where and when there was an interest from the participating countries, but has also wonthe interest of donor countries and agencies, which find easier and more matching their strategy an oriented intervention in a specific region.

WMO is pursuing its effort, together with partner NHSs and donors, to implement and ensure the sustainability in the long run of new and future HYCOS components. At the same time through the technical support it brings to the implementation of the individual component and following the guidance issuing from the WIAG, it is also trying to strengthen the links among the various HYCOSs with a view to create in the long run a global network of project providing a global coverage of data and homogeneous information products for the use of the scientific and research communities.