ISLAMABAD: The government has finalised an agreement with Japan for procurement and installation of 45 telemetry stations and five automatic weather stations for improved flood forecasting and weather monitoring system at an estimated cost of Rs5.2 billion over a period of twoand-a-half years.The weather monitoring stations are likely to be later increased to 110, of which 84 have already been shortlisted for Punjab and 26 for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) would be extending Rs4.11bn equivalent of financing (about 80pc of the project cost) while the remaining Rs1.01bn would be arranged by Wapda, the Federal Flood Commission (FFC), Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) and provincial irrigation departments.

JICA funding will also cover establishment of a data centre aimed at strengthening and improving the early flood warning system in the country maintained and operated by the PMD.The project also covers improvement of the 1,543-metre flood protection infrastructure in KP.

The Central Development Working Party (CDWP) has already cleared the Rs5.178bn worth of `Project for Flood Management Enhancement in the Indus Basin`.

The project will cover highly floodsensitive districts of Attock, Gujranwala, Jhang, Jhelum and Sialkot in Punjab and Haripur in KP.

The project`s execution and operation will be overseen by the supervisory consultants to be appointed by JICA.

The FFC being the administrative exe cuting agency will monitor the project during its implementation in coordination with Wapda, PMD and irrigation department of KP and submit monthly monitoring report to all stockholders, including JICA.

The project is part of the larger Rs200bn worth of Flood Protection Programme being jointly financed by the federal and provincial governments with the support of internationallenders.

After a series of meetings with stakeholders, a technical team of JICA last year carried out field visits to the already installed telemetry projects, which are managed and operated by Wapda and the Indus River System Authority (Irsa).

`With mutual understanding, out of 110 stations, 45 sites were finalised for Flood Telemetric Hydro-Mete or ological Stations and JICA agreed to provide financing for these sites along with funding for establishment of data centre for strengthening andimprovement of the existing early flood warning system in Pakistan,` a CDWP meeting was informed.

Flood flow data The proposed telemetry stations will provide real time data of flood flows, and the automatic flood telemetry hydromet or early warning stations will help improve the early flood warning system so that the excess water availability could be absorbed by reservoirs through flushing out excess water in advance.

`It would also help in optimal operation of the existing Hydropower Projects (HPPs) and development of future projects in the Indus Cascade,` the meeting noted.

The meeting was informed that it was imperative to have an early warning system for floods in the major sub-catchements of Upper Indus Basin for public safety and improved management of flood waves and safe oper-ations of HPPs.

The scope of work includes installation of 45 flood telemetric hydromet stations in order to have real-time data of hydro-meteorological par ameters including r ainfall, river level and flows, temperature and humidity etc, besides digital monitoring and management system, water data management, and water analytics with decision support system. `The system would comprise a unified architecture to deliver an Intelligent User Interface, a reporting engine and a Decision Support system and their key deliverables giving Wapda a single unified water management system.

The procurement of 45 automatic hydro-meteorological stations would also include data loggers, combined air temperature and relating humidity probe, raingauge,solarradiation, evaporation, wind speed and direction, water flow or velocity measuring sensors, river water level sen-sors and acoustic doppler current profilers (ADCP).

`The benefits of the project are beyond financial limits and cannot be measured in quantitative terms as precious human lives, property and livestock are involved in it and the project will help minimise panic in society often created by sudden flood in hill torrent areas,` the meeting was informed. It was told that more precise water resources management would be possible at Tarbela, Mangla and Kabul by using real time hydro-meteorological data in various numerical computer models.

The project will help the National Disaster Management Authority and the Provincial Disaster Management Authorities quickly launch rescue and relief activities at the district level about upcoming floods and minimise human errors.

All equipment would be Japan-made under the draft agreement.