Japan to help build new weather radars in Pakistan

New weather radars to be built in Sukkur and Multan with the assistance of Japan

State-of-the-art weather surveillance radars will soon cover entire Pakistan with the establishment of Multan and Sukkur with the assistance of Japan. Weather surveillance radars have already been put in place in Islamabad and in Karachi.

Japan has helped enhance capacity of weather forecasting in Pakistan, a country prone to natural disasters such as floods and landslides caused by heavy torrential rains, tropical cyclones and earthquakes.

“The Japanese government has been assisting Pakistan proactively in the enhancement of weather surveillance capacity through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) since the 1980s, in order to mitigate the damage by flood” said a statement issued by the Japanese embassy in Islamabad.

Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) officials have said that the assistance has greatly benefited Pakistan.

“We can now get exact positioning information of clouds through high-resolution images as compared to the previous weather surveillance systems. We can also provide advanced weather information to local communities, identify heavy rain areas, and issue early warning to local residents living downstream rivers which are expected to be flooded,” the official said.

A Japanese engineer, who has worked in the installation of the radar in Islamabad, says that the weather surveillance radars being set up in Pakistan are the same as those being used in Japan.

In 2019, the Japanese government had helped Pakistan in establishing the specialized medium-range weather forecasting center to enhance both the weather surveillance capacity and weather forecasting capability.

During the 2020 monsoon seasonal floods, the specialized medium-range weather forecasting system coupled with PMD’s efforts enabled local residents to safely evacuate through the timely issuance of early flood warning.