Tsunami Conference Attended By 24 Nations

Jakarta, Nov 24 (Antara) - An international conference was participated by 24 nations located around the Indian Ocean to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the 2004 devastating tsunami that caused wide-scale destruction to Indonesia, Thailand, and Sri Lanka, among others. "Actually, only 21 countries are the recipients of tsunami early warning information in the Indian Ocean region, but 24 countries are attending the conference," Research, Technology and Higher Education Minister M. Nasir stated during the opening of the conference here on Monday. International organizations such as the UNESCO, WMO, and ASEAN have also sent their representatives to participate in the conference organized by the Indonesian Meteorological, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG). Regional Tsunami Service Providers (RTSPs) in India, Indonesia and Australia are the primary source of tsunami advisories for the Indian Ocean since 2012. "We cannot just remember the history, but we must also be able to do something to prevent casualties when a tsunami such as that in 2004 happens in the future," the minister emphasized. BMKG Chairman Andi Eka Sakya said the conference`s recommendations would serve as inputs for a UN conference on disaster mitigation to be held in Sendai, Japan, on March 14-18, 2015. "This meeting is also to mark the establishment of the Indian Ocean Tsunami Early Warning and Mitigation System," Skaya noted. On December 26, 2004, the Indonesian province of Aceh Darussalam and part of Nias District in North Sumatra province were devastated by a gigantic tsunami that killed more than 200 thousand people and rendered some one million others homeless. The tsunami in 2004, caused by a 9.0-magnitude earthquake, is the most devastating tsunami in living memory, affecting 18 countries in Southeast Asia and Southern Africa, killing more than 250 thousand people in a single day, and leaving more than 1.7 million homeless. The 17 other countries affected by the deadly tsunami included Malaysia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, India, Maldives, Bangladesh, Somalia, and Tanzania.