India has become the first country to implement ‘Tsunami Ready’ in the Indian Ocean Region and Odisha is the first State with two of its villages - Venkatraipur in Ganjam district and Noliasahi in Jagatsingpur district getting the UNESCO-Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC)’s Certificate of Recognition and Certificate of Appreciation awards in a virtual event organised by the Indian National Centre for Oceanic Information Services (INCOIS) and the Indian Ocean Tsunami Information Center (IOTIC) on Friday.
Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) Secretary M. Rajeevan, Member Secretary, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), G.V.V. Sarma, Govt. of India, presented the Certificates of Recognition and Appreciation to the two villages and Odisha State Disaster Management Agency (OSDMA).
The recognition for both the villages adhering to the 11 point indicators to claim to be tsunami ready like: Community tsunami risk reduction plan, designated and mapped tsunami hazard zones, public display of tsunami information, easily understood tsunami evacuation maps, outreach and public education materials, three outreach or educational activities annually, conduct an annual tsunami community exercise, address tsunami hazards in the community’s emergency operations plan, supporting the emergency operations centre during a tsunami, reliable means for a 24-hour warning point to receive official tsunami threats and issue round the clock tsunami alerts to the public.
UNESCO-IOC officials T. Srinivasa Kumar, Head-ICG/IOTWMS Ardito M. Kodijat, Head-Indian Ocean Tsunami Information Centre (IOTIC), Prof. Dwikorita Karnawati DG, BMKG, Indonesia and Chair of ICG/IOTWMS attended in the event.
Former INCOIS director & vice-chairperson IOC-UNESCO S.S.C. Shenoi, in-charge director T.M. Balakrishnan Nair, Tsunami warning group head E. Pattabhi Rama Rao and others attended the event.
The programme link is available at https://incois.gov.in/portal/
