Oman hosts seminar on tsunami inundation, evacuation plans

Muscat: Represented by the National Multi-Hazard Early Warning Centre at the Civil Aviation Authority, the Sultanate of Oman hosted a regional workshop titled “Modelling inundation from tsunami waves and preparing evacuation plans for the northwest Indian Ocean”.

The 5-day workshop, which began in Muscat on Sunday, is being attended by 70 participants from northwest Indian Ocean countries and representatives from the National Committee for Emergency Management (NCEM), the Authority for Civil Defence and Ambulance (ACDA), academics from Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) and international experts and observers.

The workshop is conducted in pursuance of a programme of discussions on tsunamis, early warning methods and public awareness.

The programme of tsunami workshops falls within the purview of the Northwest Indian Ocean Enhanced Tsunami Warning project, which is undertaken by the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Indian Ocean (Unescap) and the UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (Iocunesco).

The workshop, sponsored by the UNESCO’s International Oceanographic Commission and the Indian Ocean Economic Commission, seeks to devise inundation reference maps and draft preliminary evacuation plans.

The workshop also lays emphasis on effective community response to the dangers of tsunamis, with the prime aim of realising the objectives of the UNESCO’s “Decade of the Oceans” tsunami programme.

The programme, which targets communities exposed to tsunami, envisages 100 percent preparedness by 2030.

The workshop’s recommendations are expected to outline modern methods and practices on evacuation plans before and after disasters like tsunamis. The recommendations will provide guidelines for national and regional centres, advising them about how to handle disasters and deal with warnings as soon as they are issued. -ONA