Unesco to launch tsunami warning system

Unesco is to formally launch the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning System this week to prevent a repeat of last year’s catastrophe, approving an action plan and installing a group to run the system.

A special oceanographic commission of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation is to launch the alert system.

Work has already begun on the system, which is expected to be fully operational by July 2006. It will detect undersea earthquakes and broadcast warnings to coastal communities via seismographic networks in the region, real time sea-level gauges and deep-sea ocean pressure sensors.

The new co-ordination group to be placed in charge of the system is to include representatives from the 27 Indian Ocean countries. The group is expected to hold its first meeting shortly after the assembly in Paris.

An interim system to alert the Indian Ocean basin has been in place since the December 26 tsunami that killed nearly 180,000 people and left 50,000 missing in countries around the rim of the Indian Ocean. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre and the Japanese Meteorological Agency provide information for the interim system.

Work has been proceeding on the new system with new or upgraded tide gauges already partially installed and transmitting information that would enable the detection of a tsunami at 10-minute intervals.

Experts also have carried out studies to assess needs in several Indian Ocean countries and help them set up national disaster plans.

Unesco’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission Assembly, which meets every two years, opened its current session yesterday and concludes on June 30.