The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) Friday signed an agreement to launch a joint initiative to improve Pakistan’s natural disaster early warning system. According to the agreement, the WFP and the PMD would establish a system to improve the dissemination of relevant and useful information for farmers and others who are threatened by weather-related shocks and other natural disasters.
“Pakistan has faced over 150 major natural disasters in the last 65 years, primarily caused by floods, earthquakes, cyclones and drought,” said Acting Country Director of the WFP Mageed Yahia while speaking on the occasion. “In this scenario, it is imperative that we have an early warning system of the highest possible calibre. Early warnings save lives and protect livelihoods”, Mageed added according to a press release issued by the WFP.
The WFP would also work with PMD to expand the existing Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) to Tharparkar and DI Khan for better validation of community-based early warning, and to strengthen the weather data retrieval system by providing GPRS sets through which the over 40 automatic weather systems installed throughout the country would become more efficient and cost effective in terms of retrieving weather information and correctly and swiftly transmitting it to Met dept headquarters for onward dissemination to provinces and districts.
The project would be jointly implemented by the WFP and the PMD, with PMD’s Islamabad office taking a lead role in implementation. Director General PMD Arif Mahmood and senior officials from the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) were also present on the occasion.