Seismic centres set up to counter natural calamities

BEIJING – Pakistan with the Chinese assistance has undertaken an ambitious programme to lay a network of seismic centres in the country to take preventive measures against geophysical hazards, said a senior official of the Pakistan Met Office Monday.
“Eight out of ten planned seismic centres have already been completed and started trial functions” said Dr Ghulam Rasool, Head of Research and Development in an interview with APP Sunday, adding that the work on the remaining two centres planned for Balochistan province was in progress. He was in the Chinese capital to represent Pakistan in an experts meeting of Asia-Pacific countries held on April 6 to 9.
Rasool said the equipments and technical assistance for these centres, The ‘Pak-China Digital Seismic Network’, had been provided by free of cost. The centres established in all the four provinces and Gilgit-Baltistan would help greatly to monitor the seismic activity throughout the region in timely and affective manners.
Based on the prompt information, relief measures can be taken in effective way and Tsunami timely warning can be issued to save the lives of coastal population. He said ten similar centres were already in operation and with addition of new ones the performance and services of Met office would further improve. He explained that all these centres would record data to be transmitted through satellite subsequently to the Met Headquarter in Islamabad where information would be processed on high speed computers.
In case of earthquake disaster, the relief teams with proper equipment may be dispatched well in time that can help save human life and property to great extent.