Yesterday was a sad anniversary. One year already since a tsunami violently shook the Asian continent causing thousands of deaths and making people of that region even more vulnerable. If the tsunami caused so much trouble, it was partly due to the fact that the region was unprepared for such a disaster. Since then, countries of the Indian Ocean ? Mauritius especially ? have been taking the bull by the horns and started working on both regional and national tsunami-warning systems.The director of the meteorological services of Mauritius, Sok Appadu, is optimistic that Mauritius can now be warned of the advent of a tsunami. Soon after the sad episode of December 2004, the met services started working on a warning system for Mauritius if there was an earthquake in the region with a risk of a tsunami. ?The system was set up in February 2005. As soon as there is an earthquake, this system sens us a warning from Japan or the Pacific. This information comes to us within thirty minutes, which gives us some time to warn the population about the danger,? he explains. Moreover, such a system was proved right last March when there were rumours of a tsunami coming towards our coastline. ?This helped us reassure the population.? But Mauritius does not intend to stop there. On the contrary, countries of the whole region are working towards the implementation of a regional tsunami warning and mitigation system for the Indian Ocean on the initiative of UNESCO?s intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC). This programme, launched last March in Paris, should allow the country to have its own regional warning centre. As from 1st July 2008, Mauritius as well as other countries of the region will no longer have to rely on Japan or Hawaii to obtain the necessary information. Immediately after the first meeting in March, the Mauritian government invited the participants at the International Conference Centre in Grand-Bay to go more deeply into the issue. This ?Second International Coordination Meeting for the Development of a Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System for the Indian Ocean? was meant to identify ways and means of getting ready for a tsunami. To achieve such an objective, there needs to be a data exchange between the countries but it also requires that governing bodies of each country are fully involved and determined to act. During the meetings, Mauritius impressed the international community with the clarity and quality of the warning system it presented. It was decided that the ministry of the Environment, the Mauritius Oceanography Institute and the meteorological services will work in collaboration while the National Disasters Committee (under the responsibility of the prime minister?s office) would be in charge of coordinating the activities of a National Tsunami Centre.

Countries of the whole region are working towards the implementation of a regional tsunami warning. As from 2008, the region will no longer have to rely on Japan or Hawaii to obtain the necessary information.

The Mauritius Oceanography Institute has been entrusted with the drawing of a map to point out the vulnerable areas of the countries. Although this map should be ready by the beginning of next year, it is already known that the most areas most at risk are in the Northern region. It should be reminded that Grand-Gaube was among the places where the effects tsunami were felt the most.The meteorological services were supposed to deal with the alert protocol based on the Pacific Tsunami Warning System (PTWS) as well as on the Japanese meteorological agency including the transmission of information, evacuation and evaluation bulletins. It seems to have already started working in that direction but the director of the institution announced it would go further next year with the setting-up of equipment to measure any earthquake or the sea level. As for the PMO, it is responsible for implementing an evacuation strategy as well as ways of rehabilitating the affected areas. Until the region acquires its own tsunami warning centre, it seems Mauritius has taken the right steps towards readiness in case of another disaster. However, it is important that all pending projects be concluded in the near future to avoid any human or material catastrophe in the country.