OdishaPlus Bureau

Two coastal villages of Odisha were tagged ‘Tsunami ready’ on Thursday making the state first in the Indian Ocean region to achieve this feet. In addition to this, India has also become the first country to achieve the honour.

Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO acknowledged Venkatraipur (Boxipalli) village of Rangeilunda block under Ganjam district and Noliasahi village of Ersama block under Jagatsinghpur district for greater preparedness to face the tsunami disaster.

The ‘Certificate of Recognition’ will be handed over to the communities of Venkatraipur and Noliasahi as Tsunami Ready villages in a virtual event on Friday. The event will be organised by Intergovernmental Coordination Group for the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System (ICG/IOTWMS) Secretariat in Perth, Australia and the Indian Ocean Tsunami Information Centre (IOTIC) in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Pradeep Jena, Odisha State Disaster Management Authority (OSDMA) Managing Director will receive the certificate from UNESCO. The Indian Ocean Tsunami Ready Programme of IOC-UNESCO is a community performance-based programme that facilitates tsunami preparedness as an active collaboration of the community, community leaders, and national and local emergency management agencies.

The main objective of this programme is to improve coastal community preparedness for tsunami emergencies, to minimise the loss of life and property and to ensure structural and systematic approach in building community preparedness.

The Early Warning Dissemination System (EWDS) for last-mile connectivity has been set up in the tsunami-prone villages. This system addresses the existing gap for disseminating tsunami warning up to the community level.

 

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