Tsunami-hit Asian countries are pushing ahead with creating a tsunami warning system in a bid to prevent the disaster from ever recurring as world countries continue to pool their resources to help cope with the aftermath of the unforeseen natural disaster in Asia.
The Indonesian government on Sunday sent a research vessel to the west coast of tsunami-devastated Aceh to conduct survey of the ocean floor around the zone of the Dec. 26 earthquake to make preparations for establishing an early system against earthquake, tsunami and volcanic eruption.
"We will conduct a submarine survey of the ocean floor around the quake's epicenter to find out whether the fault is still active and the extent of the damage," Indonesian State Minister for Research and Technology Kusmayanto Kakiman said while seeing off the ship, Baruna Java IV, at a Jakarta port.
Early information and data on the condition of the seabed around the epicenter of the quake would be extremely useful for establishing the early warning system, the state minister said.
Early warning systems make use of seismic stations throughout the world to locate earthquakes capable of generating giant waves and analyze them to determine the direction waves would travel and how soon they would hit coasts.
Indonesia said it had begun work with its neighbors to create an early warning system to ensure that the huge death toll from the Dec. 26 savage tsunami will never be repeated.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said he had summoned the country's scientists and ordered them to push ahead with building mechanisms that will give millions living around the Indian Ocean time to flee advancing waves.
Beginning Tuesday, a UN disaster reduction conference focusing on creating a tsunami warning system in southern Asia will be held in the Japanese western port city of Kobe, where a powerful earthquake in 1995 killed nearly 6,400 people. Some 3,000 experts and officials from 150 countries are ready to attend the meeting which aims to put promises into action on building a tsunami warning system.
In India, the government said that it would spend 27 million dollars to install deep ocean monitoring equipment to keep tabs on seismic events and their effects on the sea.
Meanwhile, V.S.Ramamurthy, secretary in India's department of science and technology said Monday that an international meeting on tsunami early warning system will be held in New Delhi on Jan. 21. The meeting, which will be a precursor to the setting up of such a system in the Indian Ocean region, will bring together participants from India, the United States, the Pacific Tsunami Warning System, as well as experts from Japan, Canada, Indonesia and Sri Lanka.
Last week, Thailand also announced that it would hold an international meeting on Jan. 29 to discuss the establishment of a tsunami warning system in the Indian Ocean. The meeting will be attended by ministers in charge of science and technology from tsunami-affected Asian countries and other countries including the United States.
The Japanese government, while marking the 10th anniversary of the deadly Kobe quake on Monday, made clear plans for a nationwide tsunami drill in July to raise preparedness for a disaster like the one that hit southern Asia last month.
Japan's Land and Transport Ministry said in a statement that the exercise would involve a practice tsunami warning, closure of floodgates and evacuation of residents from the coastal town of Wakayama, about 450 kilometers southwest of Tokyo.
(Xinhua News Agency January 17, 2005)
