First World Tsunami Awareness Day to be celebrated at AMCDRR 2016

The first World Tsunami Awareness Day will be celebrated on November 5, 2016 at the Asian Ministerial Conference for Disaster Risk Reduction (AMCDRR) 2016.
The conference will organised from November 3 to 5, 2016 in New Delhi by the Union Government in collaboration with United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR).
To commemorate the occasion, an event will be organised with Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Champions at the AMCDRR 2016.

About World Tsunami Awareness Day

• The World Tsunami Awareness Day was instituted by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) by adopting a resolution proposed by Japan.
• The objective of the day is to spread awareness among people across the world in matters related to the dangers of tsunami and stress on the importance of early warning systems in order to mitigate damage from the devastating natural calamity. It also seeks to revive traditional knowledge about tsunamis.
• Background: November 5 was selected by UNGA to coincide with the annual anniversary of the 1854 Inamura-no-hi (Fire of Inamura) event. On this day in 1854, a villager in Wakayama Prefecture, Japan through his quick action had saved countless lives when he set fire to sheaves of rice on the top of a hill, thus warning people of the imminent danger of a tsunami. This was the first documented instance of a tsunami early warning.

India’s initiatives

• Following the devastating Indian Ocean Tsunami of 2004, Central Government established an Indian Tsunami Early Warning Centre (ITEWC). It is operational since October 2007.
• ITEWC was established under the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) at Hyderabad.
• The Centre has state-of-the-art infrastructure for generating and disseminating tsunami bulletins for the entire Indian Ocean region.
• Besides, India along with 23 other Indian Ocean countries had participated in a tsunami mock drill in September 2016.

Month: Current Affairs - October, 2016