Meeting agrees on tsunami alert system<\/p>\n
Elaine Lies, Reuters, Kobe, Japan<\/p>\n
Experts and officials from around the world agreed to try to
\ncut the number of deaths in disasters over the next decade and
\npromised to set up a tsunami warning system at a conference that
\nended on Saturday.<\/p>\n
But aid workers said the framework agreement, which the United
\nNations hopes will halve the number of people killed in natural
\ndisasters, lacked detail on the steps needed to achieve its aims.<\/p>\n
The death of more than 225,000 people in last month's Indian
\nOcean tsunami had made an early warning system a top priority at
\nthe five-day UN-sponsored conference on disaster reduction in the
\nJapanese city of Kobe.<\/p>\n
\"All disaster-prone people deserve to have early warning
\nsystems,\" Jan Egeland, the UN's director of Emergency Relief,
\ntold a news conference.<\/p>\n
The huge Dec. 26 earthquake and tsunami it spawned had made
\neveryone in the world aware of the need for aid to reduce
\ndisaster risk.<\/p>\n
\"The tsunami was the wake-up call for all of us,\" he said.<\/p>\n
UN officials have promised to have a warning system up and
\nrunning in the Indian Ocean within 12 to 18 months, and Salvano
\nBriceno, head of the UN's disaster reduction body, said about $8
\nmillion had been pledged for the system.<\/p>\n
About $4 million of that is from Japan, whose long history of
\nearthquakes and devastating tsunamis has prompted it to set up a
\nsystem that aims to issue a warning within three minutes,
\nexpertise it has pledged to use in the new system.<\/p>\n
The main purpose of the meeting was convincing wealthy donor
\ncountries to invest small amounts of aid in the hope of reducing
\ndeath and destruction when disaster strikes in developing
\nnations.<\/p>\n
The conference in Kobe, where 6,433 people were killed in an
\nearthquake a decade ago, adopted a framework agreement to be
\nimplemented over the next 10 years.<\/p>\n
Among steps outlined in the agreement are cooperating to
\ndevelop risk maps, the use of satellite technology to help with
\nearly warning and developing programs to teach people in
\nhazardous areas what to do when a warning is issued, something
\nexperts at the meeting said was especially needed.<\/p>\n
HALVING DEATHS<\/p>\n
Egeland reiterated his hope of halving the number of deaths
\nfrom natural disasters over the next decade. About 600,000 people
\nwere victims of natural disasters over the last 10 years, but
\nthat was down by a third from the previous decade.<\/p>\n
\"I think it is achievable,\" Egeland said. \"We are counting
\nthousands of new deaths a day due to the tsunami. Those lives,
\nfor the better part, would have been saved if we had the early
\nwarning system.\"<\/p>\n
Officials had worked late into the night to hammer out details
\nof the statements, a process some delegates said was hampered by
\ndisagreement over measures to hold governments to promises and
\nwhether to require nations to pay a fixed amount to reduce the
\ndanger of disasters before they happen.<\/p>\n
Aid workers welcomed the agreement on the early warning system
\nbut said the framework agreement lacked concrete details of how
\nits ambitious goals were to be achieved.<\/p>\n
\"You have to ask whether this conference and its outcomes have
\nhonored those who died in the Asian earthquake and tsunamis,\" Eva
\nvon Oelreich of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red
\nCrescent Societies said in a statement.<\/p>\n
\"Have they brought hope to the survivors and to other
\nvulnerable people that soon the day will come when the chance of
\nsuch horror occurring again will have been reduced to the
\nminimum?\"<\/p>\n
Differences even appeared to have emerged over the tsunami
\nwarning system.<\/p>\n
Numerous proposals have emerged about the best system to
\nadopt, and some delegates fear countries are jockeying for
\nleadership of the high-profile project.<\/p>\n
UN officials have denied rivalry and say their organization
\nwill coordinate the process as details are worked out.<\/p>",
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