WORLD TSUNAMI AWARENESS DAY 2022:GET TO HIGH GROUND

The word "tsunami" comprises the Japanese words "tsu" (meaning harbour) and "nami" (meaning wave). A tsunami is a series of enormous waves created by an underwater disturbance usually associated with earthquakes occurring below or near the ocean.

Volcanic eruptions, submarine landslides, and coastal rock falls can also generate a tsunami, as can a large asteroid impacting the ocean. They originate from a vertical movement of the sea floor with the consequent displacement of water mass.

Tsunami waves often look like walls of water and can attack the shoreline and be dangerous for hours, with waves coming every 5 to 60 minutes.

The first wave may not be the largest, and often it is the 2nd, 3rd, 4th or even later waves that are the biggest. After one wave inundates, or floods inland, it recedes seaward often as far as a person can see, so the seafloor is exposed. The next wave then rushes ashore within minutes and carries with it many floating debris that were destroyed by previous waves.

Tsunamis are rare. But they can be extremely deadly. In the past 100 years, more than 260,000 people have perished in 58 separate tsunamis. At an average of 4,600 deaths per disaster, the toll has surpassed any other natural hazard. Tsunamis know no borders, making international cooperation key for deeper political and public understanding of risk reduction measures.

Tsunamis kill more people than any other sudden onset natural hazard.

Most are caused by seismic activity, like earthquakes under or near the ocean, but they can also result from  landslides or volcanoes.

Over 700 million people live in low-lying coastal areas and Small Island Developing States exposed to extreme sea-level events including tsunamis.

Over the past two decades, tsunamis have accounted for almost 10 percent of economic losses from disasters, setting back development gains, especially in countries that border the Indian and Pacific Oceans.Tsunamis kill more people than any other sudden onset natural hazard.

Most are caused by seismic activity, like earthquakes under or near the ocean, but they can also result from landslides or volcanoes.

There is limited public information on tsunamis that happened before the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Data, information, records and reports of the events are scattered and difficult to find, and there are limited or no eyewitness stories documented, and certainly no video documentation. The lack of this information makes it difficult to have local and contextualized information to raise awareness and preparedness of the local people.Museums may have records and documentation that could be used for public awareness purposes. There is still a significant amount of tsunami information and documentation that we need to preserve in Indonesia (1969 South Sulawesi; 1977, 1979 and 1987 East Nusa Tenggara; and 1965 and 1998 North Moluccas), the Philippines (1968 Luzon Island; 1976 Mindanao; and 1994 Mindoro) and many other countries

As a result, the UN General Assembly has designated 5 November as World Tsunami Awareness Day and called on the world to mark it. Each edition of the annual day will be thematic: the focus of the first one, in 2016, is effective education and evacuation drills.

World Tsunami Awareness Day encourages the development of national and community-level, local disaster risk reduction strategies to save more lives against disasters. 

With adequate warning and preparation, at-risk communities can make their way to safety by getting to higher ground when a tsunami strikes.

Regular tsunami drills and evacuation plans in 18 countries in Asia and the Pacific, involving than 60,000 students and teachers, means that once a tsunami warning is received they know where to go and what to do.

 #GetToHighGround  is an initiative which encourages and supports partners in raising awareness of tsunami risk by by organising a drill, fun run or walk of their tsunami evacuation route – to get to high ground.

The concept is to engage citizens, raising awareness of tsunami and coastal risk, tailoring the action to the local context (UNDRR)

This year’s observance promotes "Sendai Seven Campaign,” target (g).

The Sendai Seven Campaign –"7 targets, 7 years" was launched in 2016 by the United Nations Secretary - General, with the main objective of promoting the seven targets of the Sendai Seven Campaign over seven years. This is an advocacy initiative to encourage implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction with the goal of saving lives, reducing disaster losses and improving management of disaster risk.

Each one of the seven targets of the Sendai Framework for disaster reduction, are designated for each year of the campaign

• 2016 – Target (a): Substantially reduce global disaster mortality by 2030, aiming to lower the average per 100,000 global mortality rate in the decade 2020- 2030 compared to the period 2005-2015

• 2017 – Target (b): Substantially reduce the number of people affected globally by 2030, aiming to lower the average global figure per 100,000 in the decade 2020- 2030 compared to the period 2005-2015;

• 2018 – Target (c): Reduce direct disaster economic loss in relation to global gross domestic product (GDP) by 2030;

• 2019 – Target (d): Substantially reduce disaster damage to critical infrastructure and disruption of basic services, among them health and educational facilities, including through developing their resilience by 2030;

• 2020 – Target (e): Substantially increase the number of countries with national and local disaster risk reduction strategies by 2020;

• 2021 – Target (f): Substantially enhance international cooperation to developing countries through adequate and sustainable support to complement their national actions for implementation of the present Framework by 2030;

• 2022 – Target (g): Substantially increase the availability of and access to multi-hazard early warning systems and disaster risk information and assessments to people by 2030.

The date of 5 November was chosen in honour of a true story from Japan: “Inamura-no-hi”, which means the “burning of the rice sheaves”. During an 1854 earthquake, a farmer saw the tide receding, a sign of a looming tsunami. He set fire to his harvested rice to warn villagers, who fled to high ground. In the aftermath, he helped his community build back better to withstand future shocks, constructing an embankment and planting trees as a tsunami buffer.

Raising awareness every year on tsunami and other natural hazard is very important most especially in present days where individuals are less concious of their environment,and their is less or no community collaboration and development.

The legend behind world tsunami awareness day(story of the Japanese farmer) will greatly help in making the present and future generation realise the importance of sacrifice and the importance of working towards development of a community and the world as a whole.

When each and every individual take it upon himself to work towards developing and at thesame time  keeping sustainability in mind, taking necessary precautionary actions          needed,the impact of natural hazards such as the tsunami will be reduced by greater percentage each year.