Thailand pushes to host Indian Ocean warning center
Thailand pushes to host Indian Ocean warning center
Joseph Coleman Associated Press/Phuket, Thailand
Thailand drove ahead with its proposal on Saturday at an international conference to host a planned tsunami warning center for the Indian Ocean, but worked to reach a compromise with other countries that also wanted to play regional roles.
The two-day meeting, which opened on Friday at Thailand's tsunami-devastated Phuket island, gathered delegates from 57 countries and agencies to hash out how to create a network that would quickly warn nations of a coming tsunami so coastal areas could evacuate.
A draft of the conference declaration supported Thailand's proposal of having the Bangkok-based Asian Disaster Preparedness Center, or ADPC, as the "focal point" for the system, but delegates said the document could still be changed before being adopted later on Saturday.
The discussions followed a United Nations conference in Japan that gave firm endorsement of a warning system similar to one that operates in the Pacific Ocean. Experts say many of the more than 145,000 lives lost in the Dec. 26 southern Asia tsunami disaster could have been saved with even a few minutes' advance notice.
"Now is the time for us to translate this political commitment into concrete action," Thai Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai said at the opening session on Saturday.
But action has been slow in coming. One of the prime tasks facing the region is deciding where to base a warning center that would collect data from various countries in the area, analyze it and issue warnings to vulnerable coasts.
Some delegates were reluctant to let a single nation play center stage. In response, they were considering creating several centers covering smaller clusters of countries. Thailand's ADPC could then collate data from those centers and issue alerts, Surakiart said.
Thai officials were urging quick action.
"This is the time, when the iron is hot," said Suvit Yodmani, the center's executive director, pointing out that the ADPC had 19 years' experience mitigating the effects of cyclones, typhoons and floods and could easily be adapted for tsunamis.
Other countries, however, expressed doubts. India contends it has the technological know-how to host the warning center, while Indonesia says its position close to major quake zones means it should run the system.
Officials say that the center would bring the host added security against tsunami, and could also create a windfall of international assistance.
"We are just now beginning the wrestling," said Terje Skavdal, a disaster response adviser with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. He said countries had questions about whether the ADPC had the technical expertise to run the network.
Delegates -- who discussed the proposals behind closed doors -- were wary of engaging in an unseemly battle over spoils after such a momentous tragedy.
"Don't look at it as a competition. Look at it as an interest to solve a problem after one of the worst natural disasters that ever occurred," said Suvit, who added the system would cost between US$50 million and $60 million and take from two to three years to set up.
The plan backed at the meeting in Japan is to get individual nations to set up separate alert systems, and then to establish a regional center to link them up. The whole network would then be hooked up with the one for the Pacific based in Hawaii as part of an eventual global system.
Funding was also an issue in Phuket. The UN has collected some $8 million in pledges for the warning network, but Thailand has come out with a proposal to create a voluntary trust fund for the project and contributed $10 million to it.