A basic tsunami early-warning system for the Indian Ocean could be in place within a year, according to the United Nations.
UN officials said yesterday that thousands of lives could have been saved from the devastating giant waves which followed Sunday's Indian Ocean earthquake if an early-warning system similar to that already for the Pacific Ocean had been in operation.
"I want to see that every coastal country around south Asia and south-east Asia has at least a basic but effective tsunami warning system in place by this time next year," said Mr Salvano Briceno, director of the UN's International Strategy for Disaster Reduction.
Travelling at great speed, the giant waves struck the Indonesian island of Sumatra and India's Nicobar and Andaman islands within an hour of the earthquake on the ocean floor.
However they took two hours to reach Thailand and Sri Lanka and six hours to reach the east coast of Africa - enough time to organise evacuations if warning procedures had been in place.
Mr Briceno said that other regions vulnerable to tsunamis, including the Caribbean and the Mediterranean, should also consider early-warning systems.
The UN plan for the Indian Ocean involves hooking up the ocean-rim countries to the early-warning system already in place for the Pacific, enabling them to receive and act on information on earthquakes which could potentially generate tsunamis. Education and information campaigns would also be necessary.
A conference on disaster reduction which is to be held in Kobe, Japan, in January, would devote a special session to work out the details of an Indian Ocean warning system, Mr Briceno said.
Financial Times Service