Representatives from Indian Ocean countries affected by the Dec. 26, 2004 tsunami and other countries and experts on early warning systems will gather in Mauritius on Thursday for the second international coordination meeting for the development of a tsunami warning and mitigation system for the Indian Ocean.

The meeting is coorganized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR).

"We need to act quickly and have an early warning system operational as soon as possible in the Indian Ocean," Salvano Briceno, director of the ISDR secretariat, told reporters here.

"The earthquake that struck Indonesia on March 28 is a timely reminder of what we might expect in the future. Some geologists are suggesting that these earthquakes along the Sumatra fault line could be part of a domino effect triggering further large earthquakes and tsunami," he added.

Following the previous meeting held in Paris in March, Indian Ocean countries and international partners have created a partial tsunami early warning system, by beefing-up ocean observing systems and national tsunami warning capacities, and by making specific arrangements for the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii and the Japan Meteorological Agency in Tokyo to transit warning information to national contact points in the region.

"The partial system worked well in the March 28 event but a lot more needs to be done to establish a fully fledged system that meets the needs of the participating countries, a point that will be addressed at the meeting in Mauritius," said Briceno.

"Now is the time to turn the promises to support a tsunami warning system into cash and to build a good system that will be running smoothly by the end of 2006 -- if not before," he added.

The meeting in Mauritius will discuss how national tsunami warning centers can work in a regional operational framework, clarifying the responsibilities of countries and national, sub-regional and regional centers to ensure an effective tsunami early warning system in the Indian Ocean.
 
(Xinhua News Agency April 13, 2005)