World Tsunami Awareness Day is commemorated every year on 5 November to raise awareness about tsunami Image Courtesy AP
World Tsunami Awareness Day is commemorated every year on November 5 to raise awareness about tsunamis. Early warning and early action are effective in saving lives and protecting people in case of a tsunami. In order to be effective, tsunami early-warning systems need to cover every at-risk person, they are required to be multi-hazard, and communities must be prepared for acting quickly.
Tsunamis are rare incidents but can be extremely fatal. In the last 100 years, 58 tsunamis have caused more than 260,000 deaths.
History:
In December 2015, the United Nations General Assembly declared November 5 as World Tsunami Awareness Day. UN called on international bodies, countries, and civil society to raise awareness about tsunamis and share innovative approaches for risk reduction. World Tsunami Awareness Day was Japan’s brainchild. Japan built up major expertise in areas like tsunami public action, early warning, and building back better after a disaster to reduce future impacts because of its repeated and bitter experience over the years.
In collaboration with the rest of the United Nations system, UN Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) facilitates the commemoration of World Tsunami Awareness Day.
Significance:
The word tsunami is made up of two words, “tsu” (meaning harbour) and “nami” (meaning wave). A tsunami is a series of large waves formed by an underwater disturbance usually associated with earthquakes taking place below or near the ocean.
In the past 100 years, the highest number of deaths due to a tsunami was in the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, which occured in December. It led to an estimated 227,000 fatalities in 14 countries. Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, and Thailand were the hardest hit.
Just 3 weeks after the disaster, the international community came together in Kobe, in Japan’s Hyogo region. Governments adopted the 10-year Hyogo Framework for Action, which was the first comprehensive global agreement on disaster risk reduction. They also formed the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System, which boasts scores of seismographic and sea-level monitoring stations and sends alerts to national tsunami information centres.
In the last 2 decades, tsunamis have caused almost 10 percent of economic losses from disasters, setting back the development gains, especially in nations that border the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
Sources:
UN, link: https://www.un.org/en/observances/tsunami-awareness-day
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