Pakistan secures $188m from WB for climate project

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has managed to secure $188 million in assistance from the World Bank for the Hydromet and Disaster Risk Management Services Project — initiated to strengthen Pakistan’s public sector delivery of “reliable and timely” hydro-meteorological and disaster risk management services.

The $188 million amount of the total $210 million required for the project was committed by the World Bank and would be implemented over a period of five years (2019- 2024), an official of the Ministry of Climate Change told APP.

He said it has three main components: Hydro-meteorological and climate services (total $106.0 million) to achieve institutional strengthening, infrastructure modernisation, enhanced service delivery of PMD and monitoring and implementation support of Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD). Secondly, disaster risk management (total $82 million) that would deal with legal policy, infrastructure for resilience; and support of NDMA.

Thirdly, the Contingent Emergency Response Component (CERC) would support preparedness for and rapid response to climate and natural disasters, emergency, and catastrophic event as needed.

He added that the project would be implemented through the National Disaster Risk Management Fund (NDRMF) Pakistan, a government-owned company managed by the climate change ministry. Besides, the project was set as an effective tool to manage risks of environmental degradation and climate change alongwith driving economic growth, livelihoods and poverty eradication.

The key objectives of the World Bank-funded project, he said, was to attain conservation, leveraging supply chains and technology; attaining Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) by restoring at least 30 per cent of degraded forest, five percent of degraded cropland, six per cent of degraded grassland (rangeland) and 10 per cent of degraded wetlands in Pakistan by 2030.