Asia inches closer to tsunami warning plan

Asia inches closer to tsunami warning plan

Samantha Brown, Agence France-Presse/Phuket, Thailand

Indian Ocean nations seeking to build an early warning system to prevent another tsunami tragedy agreed to move ahead with the scheme at the weekend in Thailand but face a slew of future debates.

Ministers from 43 countries -- those ravaged by the Dec.26 tsunamis as well as donors -- met on the tsunami-hit island of Phuket aiming to thrash out agreement on what kind of system they want to see set up.

While technical experts here said the basic technology behind the warning system was likely to be modeled on the one established in the Pacific, the politically sensitive protocol behind issuing warnings still needs work.

Countries agreed to push on to urgently establish a system by mid-2006, but the final declaration adopted by ministers left the door open on who would host the scheme's coordination center after closed-door wrangling on the issue.

Thailand had proposed hosting a regional center as part of the new system, which would piggy-back on its Bangkok-based Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC), set up by the United Nations in 1986 and now with 30 member countries.

The ADPC's goal of taking the regional lead was recognized but the ministers fell short of agreeing it should immediately take on the role. Thailand said it would still start work to build capacity to do so with supportive countries.

Indonesia and India were lukewarm to Thailand taking charge, preferring instead to either stick with a so-called "multi-node system", which would see strengthened subregional and national systems overlapping instead.

"We need some time to discuss and see the existing capabilities with the United Nations overseeing this. At this stage it is too premature to speak about" a regional center, Indonesian delegate Jan Sopaheluwakan told AFP.

The countries did agree however for the system to be developed under the auspices of the UN's Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC), which oversees the Pacific Ocean early warning system already in place.

The IOC will hold its first regional coordination meeting March 3 to 8, "which will be an opportunity to build further on the results of our meeting," Thai Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai told a news conference.

Delegates said earlier during the talks, which began on Friday with a senior officials meeting, that they did not expect to decide on who would host any regional center by Saturday, putting an optimistic spin on the apparently strung-out process.

"What was repeatedly observed today was that we are merely one month and two days after the tsunami -- this is an enormous achievement, pulling all these resources together," said delegate Denis d'Amours, who attends IOC meetings in his capacity as a director of Canada's fisheries department.

He warned however that momentum needed to be maintained for the long term.

"Getting here is a good first step. The second important step will be the meeting in Paris in March where we will transform the proposed template by the IOC into a real plan for Indian Ocean -- and that's ambitious."

More talks are set for late March to bring in donors and focus on specific funding pledges, while countries also called in their declaration for a new steering group to meet soon in the region.

Experts say the lack of a warning mechanism in the Indian Ocean was a factor in more than 280,000 people dying after the Dec. 26 tsunamis slammed into 11 nations after a massive earthquake off Indonesia.