World Tsunami Awareness Day is observed every year on November 5 to raise awareness about this natural disaster.

Although rare, tsunamis are one of the most devastating natural hazards. In the past 100 years, about 58 tsunamis have claimed over 260,000 lives, the United Nations' official website showed.

This means, on average, each tsunami claimed 4,600 lives, which surpasses any other natural hazard. In the past century, the Indian Ocean tsunami of December 2004 claimed the maximum number of lives. The devastating natural disaster caused an estimated 227,000 fatalities in 14 countries. India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand were the worst affected by the tsunami.

History

World Tsunami Awareness Day was first suggested by Japan. With its experience, Japan has developed early warning, public action and building back better capacity.

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Three weeks after the tsunami in the Indian Ocean, the international community gathered in Kobe, Japan, and adopted the 10-year Hyogo Framework for Action, which was the first comprehensive global agreement on disaster risk reduction.

Governments also established the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System, which has several seismographic and sea-level monitoring stations under its fold and disseminates alerts to national tsunami information centres.

In December 2015, the UN General Assembly (UNGA) declared November 5 as World Tsunami Awareness Day.

Significance

The UN along with the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO has asked governments, civil societies, and international organisations to raise awareness about tsunamis and share ideas on how to minimise the risk caused by the natural disaster.

The day is observed to create cognisance of tsunami among people, especially the 700 million currently living in low-lying islands and coastal areas.

IOC is also working to raise awareness about effective actions for mitigating damage, better coordination between early warning services, and better policies and practices to reduce destruction.

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(Edited by : Sudarsanan Mani)