UNESCO Recognition For 2 Odisha Villages, 1st Indian State To Get 'Tsunami Ready' Tag For Both

India's eastern state of Odisha has a long history of natural disasters and every year its coastal regions are hit by cyclones.

But over the years, Odisha had become really good in disaster management and has significantly reduced the fatalities from such events.

AP

Odisha State Disaster Management Authority is considered one of the best in the country.

The state is now evolved action plans to evacuate millions of people on the frontlines of cyclones in a matter of hours.

Earlier this year when Cyclone Amphan was approaching the state, the Naveen Patnaik government had set a 'zero casualty' target and had evacuated 11 lakh people, to safer grounds.

AFP

Now, Odisha has become the first state in the Indian Ocean region to get two coastal villages 'tsunami ready', said an official on Thursday. This also makes the country to become the first in the Indian Ocean region to achieve the honour.

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

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In a virtual event on Friday, 'Certificate of Recognition' will be handed over to the communities of Venkatraipur and Noliasahi as Tsunami Ready villages, informed the official.

The virtual event will be organised by the 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.

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Tsunami Ready is a community performance-based programme, initiated by IOC of UNESCO to promote tsunami preparedness through active collaboration of public, community leaders, and national and local emergency management agencies. The main objective of this programme is to improve coastal community¡¯s preparedness for tsunami emergencies, to minimize the loss of life and property and to ensure a structural and systematic approach in building community preparedness through fulfilling the best-practice indicators set by the Intergovernmental Coordination Group for the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System (ICG/IOTWMS) of UNESCO-IOC.

The Indian Tsunami Early Warning Centre (ITEWC), INCOIS is the nodal agency to provide tsunami advisories to India. INCOIS is also providing tsunami advisories to Indian Ocean region (25 countries) as a Tsunami Service Providers as the responsibility assigned by IOC-UNESCO. To create awareness and preparedness about the tsunamis, INCOIS regularly organizes Tsunami Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) workshops, training sessions and seminars for state and district level Disaster Management Officials (DMOs) of the coastal states.