Bangkok--19 Dec--eTurboNews
Two years after the tsunami waves swept across the coastline of 11 countries around the Indian Ocean on December 28, 2004, nations are still at odds as to who should host the regional warning system.
It also does not help that a United Nations-sponsored regional warning system with a network of 26 national tsunami information centers around the Indian Ocean is being estimated to take years before it can be implemented.
A 5.7 magnitude earthquake, which struck the Indonesian island of Sumatra killing seven and wounding about 100 other people early Monday, has now brought back the urgency and importance of implementing the warning system. The earthquake, which sent residents in the area running for their lives, was felt in Singapore, 540 kilometers away.
In July, a 7.7 magnitude earthquake off the south coast of Indonesia's Java Island killed more than 600 people.
The United Nations had originally set mid-2006 for implementation of the regional warning system. The plan includes the installation of 23 additional deep-sea warning buoys in the Indian ocean.
"India, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and Australia are still squabbling who should host the warning system," said a US expert involved with installation of the buoys. "Though the countries are more prepared, a lot more still needs to be done, much left to achieve."
An official from the UN Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization said in June the regional warning system is on schedule. "The first country which meets the standards set out by the UN will be appointed to host the regional center, including a subsidy to be supervised by the UN Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC)," the official said.
"They keep talking, discussing, organize meetings, but there is still no solid outcome, nothing is happening," complained Smith Thammararoj, head of Thailand's National Disaster Warning Center.
Individual countries have instead gone on their separate ways to install their own warning systems.
Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia have installed or are in the processes of installing their own individual warning systems.
Indonesia, hardest hit by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami with about 160,000 deaths, is in the processes of installing 15 German-funded warning buoys, together with seismographs by 2009.
Thailand, which had the second highest number of deaths, this month released a US-funded deep-sea warning buoy into the Indian Ocean, and installed 90 watchtowers along its coastline to work with its national warning center.
Malaysia has started laying its US-made warning system buoys off its coastline.
However, India and Sri Lanka still have no immediate plans to install an early warning system.
However, Sri Lanka, which reported 31,000 deaths, has set up direct links with the US Geological Survey to track earthquakes through its newly established National Disaster Management System.
Following the December 2004 tsunami, which swept across the region and killed about 220,000 people, affected countries and donor nations agreed to work together on a UN sponsored solution, similar to the Pacific Warning System in Hawaii.