Project opening today:

Japanese aid upgrades Met stations

The Japanese Government has provided a grant aid of Japanese Yen 630.314 million for the improvement of meteorological observation network in Sri Lanka. The genesis of this project can be traced back to discussions that the Disaster Management and Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe had with Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) on his visit to Tokyo and emphasised that this project should be afforded the highest priority.

The Meteorology Department (DoM) is responsible for providing weather forecasts, advisories and warnings to the public as well as to other concerned agencies during periods of bad weather. Even though the Department continues to carry out its responsibilities with a lot of dedication, its observation network and the communication system have been inadequate.

With this project, the existing 20 meteorological stations could be upgraded to Automatic Weather Station (AWS) status with real time communication facilities. In addition, 18 new AWS stations are installed with real time communications, at locations crucial to weather forecasting.

Under this project Meteorology Department has received 38 Automatic Weather Stations with VSAT communication equipment worth Yen 577.7 million. The technology was transferred to DoM staff during the project period, to ensure the operation and maintenance of the equipment and also the installation of 7 remaining stations in North and East.

As an outcome of this project, meteorological information is observed and monitored real time and are received at the processing centre in Colombo more effectively to issue precise weather advisories and early warnings to the public, aiming at protecting lives and reducing damages to properties caused by natural disasters.

In addition to this project, JICA had provided a development study for enhancing the capacity of concerned organisation on the disaster management such as Disaster Management Centre under the same Ministry from October 2006 up to March this year and the Technical Cooperation by JICA will be started this year aiming further improvement of weather forecast and effective utilisation of the output of the system introduced under this project.

The project is successfully completed and the handing over ceremony will take place today at 11.00 a.m. at the Meteorology Department with the presence of Disaster Management and Human Rights Minister and Japanese Ambassador in Sri Lanka.