Cyclone warning centre to be set up in Karachi, Gwadar

ISLAMABAD:

The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) plans on setting up a Tropical Cyclone Warning Centre (TCWC) in Karachi and a Marine Meteorological office in Gwadar.

They also plan on having a backup in Islamabad in order to monitor tropical cyclones by establishing a reliable network for an early warning system and to provide meteorological services to the shipping industry. At the moment, the PMD has a facility for forecasting tropical cyclones and providing routine marine meteorological services to fishermen and the shipping industry but it has been running as a project, not a permanent section of the PMD, said an official of the PMD while talking to The Express Tribune.



An official from the PMD who wished to remain anonymous claimed that separate buildings have been constructed for the project in Karachi and Gwadar. He said that state-of-the-art equipment was being used and the PMD staff was running the project. He added that their posts have yet to be approved and this was creating problems for the PMD in terms of managing and day-to-day monitoring.

PMD's director-general (DG) Hazrat Mir claimed that this project was part of the approved early warning and response system. He said that it includes the collection and preparation of information and possible risk analysis from the tropical cyclone for the region under its influence. He added that the aim of the project was to set up a system to track cyclones, issue warnings and dissemination of the information to the public and authorities. It, he claimed, would also help minimise the cyclone's destructive effects - save property and lives.

He also said that the project had enhanced the capabilities of the PMD in the field of prediction of cyclone activities, hydrology, meteorology, climatology and cyclonic storm studies and will enhance the knowledge of marine and tropical storms.

The DG claimed that according to figures from the Pakistan Fisher Folk (PFF), around 20,000 boats - each carrying 10 to 15 crew members were in deep sea waters while five to 10,000 boats were in shallow waters near the coastal areas of Sindh and Balochistan. Their lives, he said, were saved due to early warnings issued by the TCWC regarding Cyclone Nilofar on October 26. The TCWC project was initiated after the 2007 cyclone. It was supposed to be completed in two years but due to a shortage of funds it took six years to complete and became functional in 2013. The estimated cost of the project was Rs156.56 million and it was completed at Rs155.882 million. Mir said that under the framework of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and International Maritime Organisation the entire global ocean has been divided in 17 sub-regions and different meteorological services are assigned the responsibility to provide weather forecasts, warning and other related information to ensure safety of marine navigation and coastal activities this programme is called Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS) and PMD has been given the responsibility of marine safety for Met-Area-IX under GMDS, so it would also provide fishermen, shipping community, and weather forecasting centre for Aviation at Jinnah International Airport Karachi as an additional responsibility. PMD is also the member of World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and has the responsibility of issuance of forecast and warning for the tropical cyclones, for the North Arabian Sea, Gulf of Oman, Central North Arabian Sea and Gulf of Adan.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 1^st, 2014.