Every November 5th, a global community assembles to mark World Tsunami Awareness Day, emphasising the importance of Tsunami knowledge and awareness. Tsunamis are natural disasters of immense destructive power, often caused by underwater disturbances like earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, landslides, and even extraterrestrial collisions. These catastrophic events, though rare, have claimed countless lives throughout history. In the context of World Tsunami Awareness Day, let’s explore the causes and impacts of tsunamis and how they intersect with the global goal of reducing inequality.
Tsunamis, born from diverse underwater disturbances, are formidable natural disasters with the potential to inflict massive harm. World Tsunami Awareness Day seeks to raise awareness about these cataclysmic events while highlighting the critical role of reducing inequality in addressing their impacts. By promoting collaboration and understanding, we can work towards a more resilient and equitable future in the face of tsunamis and other natural disasters.
World Tsunami Awareness Day theme
This year's World Tsunami Awareness Day theme is "Fighting Inequality for a Resilient Future," which mirrors the subject highlighted during the International Day for Disaster Reduction. The observance encourages all sectors of society to engage and collaborate on disaster risk reduction.
Background
In December 2015, the UN General Assembly designated 5 November as World Tsunami Awareness Day, calling on countries, international bodies and civil society to raise tsunami awareness and share innovative approaches to risk reduction.
World Tsunami Awareness Day was the brainchild of Japan, which due to its repeated, bitter experience has over the years built up major expertise in areas such as tsunami early warning, public action and building back better after a disaster to reduce future impacts. UN Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) facilitates the observance of World Tsunami Awareness Day in collaboration with the rest of the United Nations system.
Tsunamis are rare events but can be extremely deadly. In the past 100 years, 58 of them have claimed more than 260,000 lives, or an average of 4,600 per disaster, surpassing any other natural hazard. The highest number of deaths in that period was in the Indian Ocean tsunami of December 2004. It caused an estimated 227,000 fatalities in 14 countries, with Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand hardest-hit.
Just three weeks after that the international community came together in Kobe, in Japan’s Hyogo region. Governments adopted the 10-year Hyogo Framework for Action, the first comprehensive global agreement on disaster risk reduction.
They also created the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System, which boasts scores of seismographic and sea-level monitoring stations and disseminates alerts to national tsunami information centres.
Rapid urbanization and growing tourism in tsunami-prone regions are putting ever-more people in harm’s way. That makes the reduction of risk a key factor if the world is to achieve substantial reductions in disaster mortality – a primary goal of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, the 15-year international agreement adopted in March 2015 to succeed the Hyogo Framework.
Source: www.un.org
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