Tsunami Warning System on Track For Mid-2006 - UN
Date: 28-Dec-05
Country: SWITZERLAND
But the UN agency's Secretary-General Michel Jarraud said launch of the network, to be provided through the WMO's Global Telecommunications System (GTS), depended on securing financial commitments of some $1.8 million from the world community.
The system would channel information between planned Regional Tsunami Watch Providers and national tsunami centres in countries hit by last year's tidal wave disaster, the WMO said in a statement from its Geneva headquarters.
Over 231,000 people died on and after December 26 last year when an underwater quake sent giant tsunami waves crashing into coastal communities in 12 countries from Indonesia, the worst-affected, to Tanzania in eastern Africa.
Experts say many lives could have been saved if an early warning system had been in place.
Since the disaster, the Intergovernmental Oceanic Commission (IOC) run by the UN's educational, scientific and cultural agency UNESCO has been coordinating establishment of a full Indian Ocean Tsunami Early Warning System.
The WMO is one of several international bodies working with the IOC and governments from around the world on establishing the system.
The meteorological agency, which monitors weather patterns around the globe, said it had already upgraded the operations of its GTS in several countries of the region and was working to finish this work shortly.
Once fully operational, the improved network would ensure that all national weather services in countries around the Indian Ocean could receive accurate bulletins and alerts within two minutes, the WMO added.
The upgrades, it said, would improve national capacity to respond more rapidly and effectively not just to tsunamis but also to other potential disaster situations related to weather and climatic changes.
