Twenty-seven Indian Ocean rim countries will benefit from a tsunami warning system in the Indian Ocean in the next six months.
“Nine Countries consisting of the US, India, Norway, Finland, Belgium, Germany, Australia, Italia and China, have pledge to provide 5.5 million USD to assist the United Nations to build and put into operation an early warning system in the Indian Ocean,” says Patricio Bernal, General Secretary of the Inter-governmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO.
The IOC plans to assist the Indian Ocean region to build national warning centers that will receive data from the Hawaii and Tokyo warning centers to enable them to provide timely warnings of an earthquake or tsunami to people in coastal areas.
The IOC also called on the international community to further increase investment to help personnel training for warning centres in Indian Ocean rim countries.
