Tsunami alert systems being fast-tracked: UN<\/p>\n
Jay Shankar, Agence France-Presse\/Hyderabad, India<\/p>\n
Indian Ocean nations are rapidly upgrading tsunami detection
\nsystems and plan to put in place a deep-sea sensor network so
\nthose at risk can be warned faster, a UN conference heard on
\nWednesday.<\/p>\n
Twenty-three nations in the Indian Ocean rim will have a
\n\"modern\" tsunami detection network by June 2006, said Patricio
\nBernal, a top official at the United Nations Educational,
\nScientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).<\/p>\n
Bernal, who is UNESCO assistant director general, was speaking
\nat the UN's Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission meeting in
\nthe southern Indian city of Hyderabad to discuss progress towards
\nsetting up a proper warning system.<\/p>\n
\"The program entails enabling (data receiving) stations in
\nthese nations to be upgraded and be able to broadcast in real
\ntime,\" Bernal said on the sidelines of the three-day conference
\nthat opened on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\"Current systems are useless as they record data once every
\nmonth or two months. You need to record the data every 30 seconds
\nand need a reliable power source,\" he said.<\/p>\n
\"During tsunamis the first casualty is power. So solar panels
\nneed to be used to broadcast data to a satellite. All the nations
\nare changing their systems to record on real time,\" he added.<\/p>\n
More than 100 scientists, meteorologists and government
\nofficials are attending the second meeting of the
\nIntergovernmental Oceanographic Commission set up by UNESCO in
\nJune with a mandate to establish a fast tsunami warning system.<\/p>\n
Most of the 29 Indian Ocean nations did not have an adequate
\nwarning system when a massive undersea earthquake off the
\nIndonesian island of Sumatra last December unleashed giant waves,
\nkilling 217,000 people in 11 countries.<\/p>\n
Since the waves struck, Indonesia completed the initial phase
\nof a tsunami early warning system in November. Thailand has also
\ninstalled a system with U.S. help and India has said it is
\nspending 1.25 billion rupees (US$26 million) to set up a system
\nby 2007.<\/p>\n
The first commission meeting in August in the Australian city
\nof Perth set up working groups to deal with various aspects of
\nthe project such as measuring seismic activity, data collection
\nand exchange and hazard identification.<\/p>\n
The commission's second meeting in Hyderabad is aimed at
\nreviewing progress toward these goals.<\/p>\n
Bernal, who also is the commission's executive secretary, said
\nAfrican nations, Indian Ocean islands and nations around the
\nIndian Ocean rim were also upgrading detection networks.<\/p>\n
While \"the focus is now on upgrading existing seismographic
\nand sea-level networks,\" he said the UN group was also planning
\nto have a deep-sea sensor network in the Indian Ocean by 2010.<\/p>\n
\"Two deep-sea sensors have already been deployed in Sumatra
\noff Indonesia with the help of German cooperation. We're planning
\nto deploy them in the Bay of Bengal, Pakistan, Western India and
\nIran as well,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Bernal said upgrading existing detection networks and
\ninstalling deep-sea sensors would cost a total of $200 million.<\/p>\n
\"The real problem is not the cost alone. The nations will have
\nto maintain them 24 hours, 365 days a year and you need
\nspecialists. That cost needs to be factored in,\" he said.<\/p>\n
A warning system is already in place in the Pacific Ocean
\nregion. It can issue a warning less than an hour after the
\noccurrence of an earthquake that could cause a tsunami.<\/p>\n
India, which has set up an interim tsunami warning center,
\nsaid it would launch a full-fledged center by September 2007.<\/p>\n
\"All the systems such as pressure recorders, buoys, tide
\ngauges, radars and mapping of coastal areas vulnerable to
\ninundation will be ready by then,\" V. Sampath, director of the
\nIndian National Center for Ocean Information Services, said.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/tsunami-alert-systems-being-fast-tracked-un-1447893297",
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