Author(s): David Owino

World Tsunami Awareness Day; why it matters

Source(s): Disaster Risk Reduction Network of African Journalists
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“Tsunamis happen rarely. So, in our day-to-day struggles with life, many of us put it on the back burner. This can prove unfortunate if one occurs.” Words of Mika Odido, the Africa coordinator for UNESCO – Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC), in an interview with the DIRAJ editorial team on World Tsunami Awareness Day 2020.

In order to create awareness and spur up deliberate action, the UN General Assembly sitting in December 2015 designated 5 November as World Tsunami Awareness Day.

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“Our research shows that sea-level rise can significantly increase the tsunami hazard, which means that smaller tsunamis in the future can have the same adverse impacts as big tsunamis would today,” said Robert Weiss, associate professor in the Department of Geosciences at Virginia Tech who was part of the study. He added that smaller tsunamis generated by earthquakes with smaller magnitudes occur frequently and regularly around the world.

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Coastal zones are exposed to a range of natural hazards including sea-level rise with its related effects, storms and tsunamis. At the same time, they are more densely populated than the hinterland and exhibit higher rates of population growth and urbanisation.

In many of these areas, rapid urbanization and a growth in tourism and related infrastructure is being witnessed. Other than growth in population, this is also a risk factor for ecosystem degradation.

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In the past 100 years, 58 of them have claimed more than 260,000 lives or an average of 4,600 per event.

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 the hardest hit.

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