UNESCO honours Odisha's Tsunami ready villages
26 Sep 2020 19:14:26
Bhubaneshwar, Sept 26 : Odisha's two villages were recently honoured by UNESCO for being Tsunami ready villages. Odisha has become the first state in the country and thus India becomes the first country in the Indian ocean region to have any such villages.
The villages which were titled as Tsunami ready villages from Odisha are Noliasahi, Jagatsingpur district and Venkatraipur, Ganjam district. These villages have received Certificate of Recognition and Appreciation from UNESCO's - Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission ( IOC ). In a virtual event held by the Indian National Centre for Oceanic Information Services ( INCOIS ) and the Indian Ocean Tsunami Information Centre, these villages were felicitated and honoured with certification. M Rajeevan, Secretary of Ministry of Earth Sciences ( MoES ) and GVV Sarma, Member Secretary, National Disaster Management Authority ( NDMA ) presented the Certificate to the two villages.
The criterion based on which a place is recognized as Tsunami Ready are :-
- Public display of Tsunami related information
- Community Tsunami risk education plan and annual Tsunami community exercise
- Outreach and public education materials, with three such outreach or educational activities annually
- Reliable means for a 24 hour warning point to receive official tsunami threats and issuance of round the clock Tsunami alerts to public
- Designed and mapped Tsunami hazard zones and easily understood Tsunami evacuation maps
- Address tsunami hazards in the community's emergency operations plan and support emergency operations centre during a tsunami
Based on these parameters, a city / town / village is considered as a Tsunami ready village. According to PK Jena, Managing Director of Odisha State Disaster Management Authority, this award will inspire and motivate other villages and urban local bodies to become tsunami ready sooner. Besides the tag will also help Odisha to become a role model to be prepared for one of the most devastating disaster like Tsunami.