Japan agrees on weather radar grants

Islamabad:The government of Japan has agreed to provide Pakistan with grants approximately worth 1,986 million Japanese Yen (around $19 million) for installation of weather surveillance radar.

Notes to this effect were signed and exchanged between MATSUDA Kuninori, Ambassador of Japan to Pakistan and Noor Ahmed, Secretary, Ministry of Economic Affairs in Islamabad on Monday and a Grant Agreement (G/A) on the details of implementation of the project was signed and exchanged between FURUTA Shigeki, chief representative, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Pakistan Office and Syeda Adeela Bokhari, Joint Secretary (Japan/NGO/INGO), Ministry of Economic Affairs.

Weather surveillance radars have been upgrade in Islamabad, Karachi and to be establish in Multan under JICA’s grand aid. Under this project, a new weather radar is developed in Sukkur, Sindh province. It covers a gap for weather surveillance and develops a weather surveillance radar network which can cover around 90% of the whole country.

It is expected that this project will enhance capacity on weather surveillance of Pakistan and contribute to mitigation of damages caused by natural and hydro-meteorological disasters. In the signing ceremony, MATSUDA Kuninori said, “The government of Japan will continue to work together with Pakistan to make this country disaster-resilient, making good use of experience and expertise Japan has gained from many disasters in the past.” FURUTA Shigeki said enhancement of weather surveillance capacity will mitigate the damage caused by natural disasters.

Both emphasized importance of disaster management. Through this grant aid, the government of Japan and JICA continues to assist disaster management conducted by the government of Pakistan.