The government of Japan provided a Grant Aid of Japanese Yen 60.314 million for the improvement of meteorological observation network in Sri Lanka.

The genesis of this project can be traced back to discussions that Mahinda Samarasinghe, Minister of Disaster Management and Human Rights had with Japan International Cooperation agency (JICA) on his first visit to Tokyo where it was emphasised that this project should be afforded the highest priority. With this project, the existing 20 meteorological stations could be upgraded to Automatic Weather Station (AWS) status with the real time communication facilities. In addition, 18 new AWS stations are installed with the real time communications, at locations crucial to weather forecasting.

Under this project Department of Meteorology has received 38 Automatic Weather Stations with VSAT communication equipment worth Yen 577.7 million. The technology was transferred to the Meteorology Department 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.

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

In addition to this project, JICA had provided a development study for enhancing the capacity of concerned organisations on disaster management such as Disaster Manager Centre under the Ministry from October 2006 up to March 2009 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 was successfully completed and the handing over ceremony took place on Monday 13th July 2009 at the Department of Meteorology in the presence of Minister of Disaster Management and Human Rights and the Ambassador of Japan.