China provides Gwadar port warning system to mitigate effects of natural disasters

ISLAMABAD, (NNI): China has provided an early warning system to Pakistan's Gwadar port to help it mitigate the effects of natural disasters such as floods and torrential rains, the state-run Radio Pakistan reported on Sunday.

The development takes place a month after heavy rains battered Pakistan's southwestern port city of Gwadar. Streets and neighbourhoods in Gwadar as well as other districts in the Balochistan province remained inundated with floodwater for days. The downpours destroyed nearly a hundred homes in the southwestern province and forced authorities to launch operations to rescue thousands of stranded people. "China has provided equipment of early warning system to Gwadar port to help mitigate detrimental impacts of natural disasters like catastrophic flood and torrential rain," Radio Pakistan said.

China has invested heavily in southwestern Pakistan under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor Project (CPEC), an energy and infrastructure road that Islamabad hopes would help revive its economy. The multi-billion-dollar corridor is part of President Xi Jinping's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

"The collaboration between China Meteorological Administration and PMD [Pakistan Meteorological Department] is a part of boosting China Pakistan Economic Corridor's capacity for emergency management of major metrological disasters under the Belt and Road Initiative," the report said.

It said the Chinese meteorological department is helping its Pakistani counterpart enhance its institutional capabilities to meet emerging hydro-meteorological challenges.

Pakistan consistently ranks among one of the most adversely affected countries from the effects of climate change.

Large swathes of Pakistan were submerged in 2022 due to extremely heavy monsoon rains and melting glaciers, a phenomenon linked to climate change that damaged crops and infrastructure and killed at least 1,700 people and affected over 30 million others.