ISLAMABAD: The government has failed so far to provide Rs 7 billion to the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) for upgrade of the Early Warning System (EWS). Pakistan’s flood warning system is out of order and not even a single radar is working. The latest flood warning system was installed in Mangla in 2004, while the oldest system was installed in Sialkot in 1978 .In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, there is only one warning system in the province that was established in Dera Ismail Khan in 1994. The sources told Daily Times that the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) proposed a Rs 7 billion project for modernisation of the early warning system across the country with 21 radars, but the government did not respond to it. An official of the PMD said that life of a radar was just 10 years. He said that officials knew that the warning system had grown weaker and it could not warn people of any danger in time. The official said that as part of the project, the PMD would install radars in Gwadar, Zhob, Dera Ismail Khan, Dera Ghazi Khan and Quetta as well as 40 observatories in the remaining districts at the cost of Rs 3.7 billion. Automation and upgrade of nearly 100 existing observatories would cost another Rs 500 million. At least 200 Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) would cost Rs 1 billion, a Glacier Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF) station in Gilgit Baltistan and Upper Khyber Pakhtunkhwa would cost Rs 450 million besides wind profilers, warning communication system and cell broadcast and FM weather radio. The ministry said the cost of the project was quite high and it could not fund it immediately. However, the official said, the project should be processed for multi-year financing. He said that a new radar system was being set up in Mardan that would be operational by 2017. “We are loosing billions of rupees annually due to flash floods, but we have not learnt a lesson from the last years. The World Meteorological Organisation spent billion of dollars on research on EWS because the EWS was the first line of defense against the flood disaster,” he said. The PMD official said the Punjab government had promised to provide three radars for installation in Sialkot, Lahore and Mangla along with modern technology. This project would cost Rs 4 billion and could be completed in two years. The sources said that as more rains were expected this year, relief activities and provision of medical facilities should be planned in advance, but the government was not in the mood to pay attention to flood prevention and the ECW. From 1950 to 2015, Pakistan has been hit by more than 20 floods, says a report. The 2010 floods inflicted a loss of $ 43 billion on Pakistan. “The Pakistan Economic Survey shows that Pakistan lost a total of 3,072 lives and $16 billion to the floods in 2010, 2011 and 2012.” In the United States, flood damages totalled $ 8.41 billion in 2011. There were 113 flood-related deaths. Floods can affect any area to some degree; wherever rain falls, flooding can occur. As water falls to the Earth in the form of rain or snow, it seeps into the ground. But if the ground is frozen or the surface impervious (asphalt or concrete are two contenders) or the soil is already saturated and cannot absorb the water faster than it falls from the sky, problems arise. According to the research that the top 15 countries account for nearly 80 percent of the total population affected every year. These countries are all considered least developed or developing. Roughly 167,000 people in the United States, the highest-ranked high-income country, are affected every year. The study shows that approximately 21 million people worldwide are affected by river floods each year on an average. That number could increase to 54 million in 2030.