UN to Coordinate Indian Ocean Early Warning System

KOBE, Japan, January 20, 2005 (ENS) - Delegates from 150 UN member countries gathered here for a special tsunami session of the World Conference on Disaster Reduction today pledged their support to create a regional early warning system in the Indian Ocean, emphasizing the value of international and regional cooperation.

Experts agree that such a warning system could have saved thousands of lives when last month’s tsunami struck. The giant wave has claimed up to 165,000 lives to date, and the death toll is still rising.

On the dais at the special tsunami session of the World Conference on Disaster Reduction from left: Sálvano Briceño, director, ISDR; Yoshitaka Murata, WCDR president; Kamal Ibne Yousuf Chowdury, minister of food and disaster management, Bangladesh. (Photo courtesy Earth Negotiations Bulletin)

But the organization whose members usually first into disaster areas with assistance says the outcome of this conference must be clear targets for a substantial reduction in the number of people killed and affected by natural disasters by 2015.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies expressed concern that an outcomes document being drafted in Kobe so far has failed to incorporate firm commitments.

“Kobe is an opportunity to promote a concerted effort on the part of all actors to reduce the impact of disasters, reduce vulnerabilities and ensure that all people, wherever they are, are able to live safer and more productive lives,” said Eva von Oelreich, the International Federation’s Head of Disaster Preparedness and Response. “There is still time for a positive outcome but there is a very real danger that all we will get is rhetoric.”

The International Federation is calling for firm baselines and targets, in line with the 2015 Millennium Development Goals, to curb present disaster trends that bring ever increasing human suffering, material damage and loss of livelihoods.

The process should be finalized at the United Nations summit that will review progress of the millennium goals in September this year, said von Oelreich.

World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Secretary-General Michel Jarraud noted that about 90 percent of all natural disasters are of meteorological or hydrological origin.

“WMO aims 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,” he told the conference.

Ambassador Thomas Baker of the United States offered the benefits of the emerging Global Earth Observing System of Systems that will be formalized next month by 53 nations. (Photo courtesy ENB)

“This new program will help bring safety, security and peace of mind,” Briceno told the delegates. “Millions of people worldwide owe their lives and livelihoods to effective early warning systems.”

“Let me issue one word of warning,” said James Morris, executive director of the UN World Food Programme (WFP), the world's largest humanitarian relief organization. “The chronic hunger and malnutrition that afflicts 300 million children worldwide does not create the dramatic media coverage of a tsunami, but it causes far greater suffering. We cannot afford to lose sight of that fact. This too is an emergency.”

“With exceptionally generous help from Japan and other donors, no child who survived the Asian tsunami should die from hunger," said Morris. "Children suffered most in this tsunami, but with better early warning systems, we can spare millions of them in future.”

Morris stressed that WFP had made disaster risk reduction and emergency preparedness two of its corporate priorities, and that it played a key role in developing the new early warning tool, the Humanitarian Early Warning Service - HEWSweb at: www.hewsweb.org – that brings together on one Internet platform the vast amount of data available from technical institutions on each type of natural hazard.

“The Asian tsunami crisis could not have provided us with a more graphic illustration of the importance of emergency preparedness and early warning,” said Morris.

The number of natural disasters is rising, Morris told the delegates, so that now about one-third of the 100 million people the WFP feeds each year are affected by natural hazards.

“The Asian tsunami shocked the world and massive relief efforts are underway for the survivors. The challenge we now face is to keep the momentum going for millions of other people around the globe whose lives are also stalked by hunger and poverty, but whose faces are rarely in the spotlight,” Morris said

Tsunami survivors, sheltering at a relief camp for internally displaced people in Sri Lanka's Tamil dominated northeastern region, line up for a WFP food distribution. (Photo by Antonello Nusca courtesy WFP)

The new warning system will draw from the experience of the Pacific Ocean tsunami early warning systems, making use of the existing coordination mechanism of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and other international and regional organizations.

It was agreed that the United Nations will be responsible for coordinating the implementation of the system. Key countries across the globe have already committed national resources and technical assistance in establishing the system, estimated at 30 million dollars.

Following the December 26 disaster, affected countries in the region are setting up an interim system that would warn communities in the case of another tsunami before the new system is operational in a year’s time.

Building on the momentum of the world conference, a number of new regional and international meetings are being organized to support the implementation of this Indian Ocean system.

UNESCO has launched a new inter-agency initiative aimed at minimizing loss of life and reducing damage caused by floods, headquartered at a planned Centre for Water Hazard and Risk Management in Tsukuba, Japan.

“This new initiative is set to integrate the scientific, operational, educational and public awareness raising aspects of flood management, including the social response and communication dimensions of flooding and related disaster preparedness,” UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura told the conference.

The initiative is a response to the increasing number of water related disasters, deaths and widespread damage. Since 1992, the yearly number of water related disasters has risen to more than 150 from slightly over 50. They claim about 25,000 lives and affect over 500 million others annually, and cost the world economy more than $60 billion, up from about $10 billion in 1950. And, said Matsuura, these figures do not include the cost of damage to cultural assets and natural resources.

At the reception in Kobe hosted by the Government of Japan (Photo courtesy ENB)

"My friends," Egeland said, "we have no time to lose in our quest to make communities safer. Earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, locusts, droughts and other hazards wreak devastation for tens of millions of people each year. In addition to these natural threats, we now face threats of our own collective making: global warming, environmental degradation and uncontrolled urbanization."

Egeland proposed that over the next 10 years, a minimum of 10 percent of the billions now spent on disaster relief by all nations be earmarked for disaster risk reduction. "In my other capacity, as the global Emergency Relief Coordinator, I am acutely aware of how much money is being spent on being fire brigades, putting plaster on the wound, and too little on preventing the devastation and suffering in the first place."

We need a global early warning system, Egeland agreed, and said that people from many UN agencies are working with member states and partner organizations "to make early warning for all a future reality."

"But let us remember: technology is not a cure-all," he said. "From Singapore to South Africa, experience shows us that people, not hardware, must be at the center of any successful disaster warning and preparedness measures."

Indian Ocean inhabitants died and suffered because they were unaware of the danger they were in. A new book launched at the disaster reduction conference incorporates the wisdom that more than 160 authors have derived from their work in disaster reduction at international, regional, national, municipal and local levels.

"Know Risk" emphasizes the benefits of experience leading to future actions and institutional commitments to disaster reduction. It is available at the conference, or contact unpubli@unog.ch or jon.ingleton@tudor-rose.co.uk to purchase the book.

Looking ahead, Hans-Joachim Daerr, Germany’s director-general for global issues, the United Nations, human rights and humanitarian aid, offered to host an international early warning conference in early 2006.