20 January 2005

UN launches plans for global disaster warning system

The United Nations (UN) have launched extensive plans to create a global warning system to lessen the impact of deadly natural disasters.

The International Early Warning Programme (IEWP), was first proposed at the Second International Conference on Early Warning two years ago in Bonn, Germany, but it developed increasing importance in the wake of the Boxing Day tsunami in the Indian Ocean, which claimed at least 165,000 lives and injured over half a million people.

The programme would help improve resilience to all types of natural disaster, including droughts, wildfires, floods, typhoons, hurricanes, landslides, volcanoes and tsunamis, by using a combination of fast data transmission and training populations at risk from such natural hazards.

Experts have said that such measures could have saved thousands of lives in the recent tsunami disaster. It is believed that the loss of human life would have been dramatically reduced, if a tsunami warning system, like the one that exists for the volcano-and-earthquake prone Pacific Rim, had been operational in the Indian Ocean. Technology, such as tremor and tidal gauges, fast data transfer and alarm mechanisms, used in combination with training in the danger zones, would have given hundreds of thousands of people time to move to the safety of higher ground.

Speaking at the World Conference on Disaster Reduction in Kobe, Japan, the Director of the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, Salvano Briceno, said: "This new programme will help bring safety, security and peace of mind. Millions of people worldwide owe their lives and livelihoods to effective early warning systems."

Early warning systems are now widely recognised as worthwhile and necessary investments to help save lives. In 2004, millions of people in the Americas and Asia were evacuated when tropical storms struck, which saved thousands of lives.

Michel Jarraud, Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organisation, said that about 90% of all natural disasters are of meteorological origin. Speaking at the conference, he said: "We aim to halve the number of deaths due to water-related disasters over the next 15 years by improving alerting systems for weather and water events through risk assessment, hazard detection, awareness raising and education about disaster prevention of communities at risk."

UN Volunteers Executive Coordinator Ad de Raad also addressed the need for training in potential disaster zones, setting forth a series of proposals to help strengthen preparedness and response efforts. These included legislation to encourage formation of volunteer organisations, involving them in the development of early warning systems and providing people with incentives such as tax exemption and special leave to volunteer.

(KMcA/SP)