Pakistan’s weather radar plan delayed for three years despite World Bank funding

More than three years after securing World Bank financing for a major climate resilience project, Pakistan has yet to initiate the tender process for new weather radars — a critical gap in its ability to forecast and respond to extreme weather.

The radars were to be purchased under the Integrated Flood Resilience and Adaptation Project (IFRAP), which aimed to modernize Pakistan’s aging meteorological systems and reduce the human toll of climate disasters.

While the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) has moved ahead with acquiring automatic weather stations, sources familiar with the matter told Nukta that there has been no progress on the radar component — the centerpiece of the country’s early warning capability.

The delay is raising alarm as the country faces another deadly monsoon season. More than 300 people have already died in rain-related incidents this year, half of them children.

Earlier this week, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed his frustration over the failure to operationalize a national early warning system, a plan that has existed on paper for at least seven years. He called for its immediate activation, underscoring the urgency of disaster preparedness in saving lives.

Pakistan ranks among the world’s most climate-vulnerable countries, with increasingly erratic monsoons, flash floods, and glacial melt posing grave risks. Experts say the radar delay reflects deeper systemic issues.

IFRAP, funded by the World Bank, was designed to address exactly these threats. But bureaucratic inertia, poor inter-agency coordination, and institutional weaknesses — particularly within the PMD and the Ministry of Planning, Development, and Special Initiatives — have slowed progress.

The World Bank had earlier approved a separate $188 million soft loan to modernize the PMD and support the National Disaster Risk Management Fund (NDRMF). But that project collapsed due to turf wars between the PMD and the now-defunct Aviation Ministry, resulting in years of inaction.

Following the 2022 floods, which displaced millions and caused an estimated $30 billion in damages, the Pakistani government requested the World Bank to repurpose $150 million from the unused funds to provide emergency cash support to victims.

The Bank agreed — but not without resistance. Sources told Nukta that the proposal faced internal pushback from NDRMF leadership. It was only after then-Finance Minister Miftah Ismail and Finance Secretary Hamed Yaqoob Shaikh intervened that the fund’s board, chaired by Jahanzeb Khan, approved the reallocation.

The funds were handed over to the Benazir Income Support Program (BISP) for disbursement to flood-affected families. But the radar procurement, meant to prevent future disasters, remained sidelined.

In the face of mounting frustration over PMD’s performance, Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has publicly criticized the department and has begun collaborating with a private forecasting firm, Weatherwalay, to generate its own weather data.

NDMA’s forecasting efforts are expected to be strengthened by the recent launch of Pakistan’s first weather satellite. Still, observers say the failure to equip PMD with modern radar systems represents a dangerous policy lapse.

“These are not just natural disasters — they’re governance disasters,” said one official familiar with the stalled projects.

Officials await response

A senior planning commission official, speaking on condition of anonymity, acknowledged that the project has experienced delays but clarified that these were not caused by their department. "We have submitted the bidding documents to the World Bank for review and are currently awaiting their response," the official stated.

Explaining the process, the official noted that as an international tender, the documents must meet specific standards to ensure robust competition. "We are optimistic that the tender for radar procurement will be launched within the next two months," the official added.

The DG PMD did not respond to Nukta's requests for comment.