Largest Tsunami Management Exercise Undertaken By 23 Nations
Largest Tsunami Management Exercise Undertaken By 23 Nations
23 countries including India and Malaysia recently took part in Exercise Indian Ocean Wave 2014/Exercise IOWave14 for two days starting September 9, 2014. According to the MET Department of Malaysia, the tsunami exercise is a re-enactment of the strong earthquake scenario in Java and the second part of the exercise is to be held on September 10, 2014 at Pakistan's Makran Trench.
The participating nations would conduct the exercise through agencies such as the MET Department as well as the National Security Council. "The Exercise IOWave14 will put Indian Ocean countries in a Tsunami Warning situation and require decisions from the government. This follows Indian Ocean exercises held in 2009 (IOWave09) and 2011 (IOWave2011), whereby community relocation exercises were done in Langkawi (2009) and Kuala Muda (2011)," said the statement issued by the Malaysian government.
This 2 stage exercise will involve the following. In the first phase, the data pertaining to the tsunami would be issued from the point where the earthquake originates in Southern Java and the Makran Trench from RTSPs or Regional Tsunami Service Providers in Australia, India as well as Indonesia to each of the 23 nations having a Tsunami Early Warning Centre.
The second part of the exercise involves the analysis of information by the receiving nations. Each of these nations will then reach decisions based on existing predictive capacity. Government agencies will then simulate the procedure of warning the others up to the last step prior to informing the community.
This 2 day major mock tsunami drill in the Indian Ocean has been organised by the UNESCO Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission with the aim of testing the IOTW or Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System. The mock tsunami drill is aimed at improving disaster preparedness and ensuring response capabilities associated with enhanced coordination throughout the entire region prone to any tsunamis.
"The drill also aims at evaluating the system's operational capacity, efficiency of communication among the different concerned actors, and the state of preparation of national emergency services," said a statement issued by the government of India.
The ITEWC or Indian Tsunami Early Warning Centre is now going to participate in the mock drill with the bid to enhance its coping capabilities as far as such disasters are concerned. The ITEWC will participate in the drill as the NTWC (National Tsunami Warning Centre) and the RTSP or Regional Tsunami Advisory Service Provider for the countries bordering or near the Indian Ocean.
The aim is to test emergency response systems and their functional efficiency. With such efforts to ensure that disaster preparedness is on the top of the agenda, the nations are not leaving anything to chance when it comes to battling the giant tsunami waves.
