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Colombo, 23 April, (Asiantribune.com):
International experts and the donor agencies have shown keen
interest to setup a Tsunami Early Warning and Mitigation system
for the Indian Ocean after a series of discussions with the
countries in the Indian Ocean.
The Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission-IOC and the UNESCO
said that both institutions would assist countries like Sri Lanka,
Iran, Pakistan, India, Sumatra, Indonesia , Malaysia to protect
their people from the repetition tsunami related dangers in the
Sumatra plate or Macron Plate.
"Recommendations and agreements were reached after the completion
of two-day seminar held in Mauritius, during the Sinhala-Hindu New
Year," said Sri Lanka’s Minister of Science and Technology
Professor Tissa Witharana.
Prof.Witharana was a key figure in the Mauritius meeting. The
meeting was successfully concluded with the participation of
representatives of Indian Ocean Rim Countries and other
representatives from Japan, Belgium, China, France, Finland,
Germany, Italy, Norway, Russia, UK and USA.
Prof.Witharana said at a media briefing held in Colombo on
Thursday evening, that the Indian authorities too have already
agreed to install an early tsunami warning system in the Indian
Ocean. Therefore Sri Lanka will be in a position to obtain early
warning advices from the tsunami warning centers in Hawaii, Japan
and also from the two proposed centers in Sumatra and India.
The meeting recognized that in the Indian Ocean Region there are
two main seismic sources of tsunamis - Indonesian and Makran in
Iran.
It was agreed that India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and
Australia should develop their national capability to detect,
analyze and provide timely warning to all the member countries of
tsunamis generated along the Indonesian seismic zone and that
India, Iran and Pakistan should similarly cover the Makran source.
These countries should corporate closely to ensure coverage of the
tsunami-genic zones, he said.
The IOC would develop and coordinate arrangements for the
effective and timely dissemination of tsunami warnings. Each
member country would have the responsibility to issue warnings
within their respective territories.
Each country would setup a national mechanism to receive and
disseminate warnings everyday on a 24-hour basis. The UNESCO and
the IOC agreed to support the countries of the Indian region to
build up knowledge and create the public awareness and
preparedness to take appropriate action based on the warnings.
UNESCO and the IOC would assist the countries to assess their
requirements for effective and durable national tsunami warnings,
mitigation system by July 2005.Thereafter a national strategy plan
would be developed, and UNESCO and IOC would develop a mechanism
to coordinate donor assistance with relation to the assessed
needs.
The both institutions would finalize technical plans for the
detection system of the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning System-IOTWS
, so that strategic plan to implement it could be developed at the
first meeting of the Inter-governmental Coordination Group in the
second half of 2005.
Until the proposed system is fully established and functional, the
Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre in Hawai and Japan Meteorological
Agency have started to provide interim tsunami advisory
information to authorized contacts in the Indian Ocean states.
According to the Indian Sources, the government of India has
allocated 30 million US$ to setup the early warning system in it’s
region.
Meanwhile the UNESCO has agreed to fund the project.
"The IOC management has already decided to send a group of experts
to train Sri Lankan scientists who wish to learn about the tsunami
early warning system. The project would be completed by the end of
next year," said the Minister.
The Minister said he would forward a detailed report to the
President of Sri Lanka to initiate the pre-tsunami early warning
system.
- Asian Tribune -
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