Latest Tsunami Shows Need for Complete Warning System: UN Regional Group
New York, Jul 24 2006 6:00PM
Following last week’s tsunami that killed hundreds of people on the south-central coast of the Indonesian island of
Java, the head of a United Nations regional development commission called today for more comprehensive coverage from the
warning systems now being developed in the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and the devastating waves it
created.
“After 19 months of national, regional and international efforts, the Pangandaran tsunami reminds us of the challenge to
ensure that all coastal communities are safe from tsunamis, not only those affected in 2004,” Kim Hak-Su, Executive
Secretary of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), said.
“National capacity building must be enhanced to meet this need, especially in terms of decision-making on end-to-end
tsunami warning systems,” he added.
In late 2005, UNESCAP established the Voluntary Trust Fund on Tsunami Early Warning Arrangements in the Indian Ocean and
South-East Asia, which is currently open for the first round of funding and invites proposals by 31 August from eligible
regional, sub-regional, and national organizations.
According to Mr. Kim, the Voluntary Trust Fund aims “to ensure a comprehensive and coordinated approach to resource
mobilization for building and enhancing tsunami early warning capacities at various levels in accordance with the needs
of the Indian Ocean and South-East Asian countries.”
Another tsunami-related UNESCAP effort focuses on the implementation of a community-based tsunami early warning pilot
project in Sri Lanka with funding support from the Republic of Korea.
It is expected that the early warning towers and control system planned for the project would be put into operation on
26 December to commemorate the second anniversary of the tsunami in Sri Lanka.
According to the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), 26 out of a possible 29 national tsunami
warning centres, capable of receiving and distributing tsunami advisories around the clock, have been set up in Indian
Ocean countries, following the December 2004 earthquake off Indonesia’s island of Sumatra, which generated waves that
killed more than 230,000 people in over 12 Asian countries.
UNESCO said the warning system was able to quickly alert Indonesian national authorities of the danger of giant waves
following the 17 July earthquake, but the death toll was still large because the alarm did not reach the coastal
communities in time.
ENDS