The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has assigned India the task of developing a customized model that can issue advance warning of floods to Asian countries, including Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand, a senior government official said.

Secretary in the Ministry of Earth Sciences Madhavan Rajeevan said that the India Meteorological Department (IMD) would be working to customize a weather model, originally developed by the U.S. and donated to the WMO, to warn about flash floods at least six hours in advance, The Hindu daily reported on Saturday.

According to Rajeevan, a test version of this was being tried out by the IMD.

Using a combination of satellite mapping and ground-based observation, the model is called "Flash Flood Guidance System."

Like India, several southeast Asian countries depend on the monsoon and are prone to its vagaries. The proposed model would provide forecasts by computing the likelihood of rainfall and the soil moisture levels to warn of possible floods, added the report.

India currently has its own warning system for tsunamis that also doubles up a warning system for several Asian countries.

The WMO estimates say flash floods account for 85 percent of flooding incidents across the world, leading to around 5,000 deaths every year.