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UN chief calls for efforts to learn lessons from past to reduce Tsunami risk

Xinhua, March 11, 2016 Adjust font size:

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday called upon the international community to learn lessons from the past Tsunami calamities and to raise public awareness of the importance of prevention and mitigation.

The secretary-general made the appeal in his message to mark the fifth anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami, which took place on March 11, 2011, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said at a daily news briefing here.

The United Nations will observe the anniversary on Friday, Dujarric said.

In the message, Dujarric said: "The secretary-general once again extends his condolences to the people of Japan. He stresses that after Fukushima, it became clear that we are in a new era in which technology and natural disasters can combine to create danger on a previously unimaginable scale."

The United Nations sill commemorate the first World Tsunami Awareness Day on Nov. 5, he said. The date marks the day in 1854 when a tsunami struck the Japanese village of Hiromura.

Japan had suffered heavy losses as a result of tsunamis in the past and the most recently Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami, which happened five years ago. It had claimed more than 15,000 lives and also had disrupted the nuclear power industry and left many thousands homeless.

While on Dec. 26, 2004, the Indian Ocean tsunami had claimed around 230,000 lives. The devastating tsunami was formed due to earthquake with its epicenter off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. It had affected lives and the natural environment in six countries in the region including India, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Somalia and Thailand.

In December 2015, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution to designate Nov. 5 every year as World Tsunami Awareness Day.

The observance of the day would help to raise awareness among people across the world in matters related to the dangers of tsunami and shall stress on the importance of early warning systems in order to mitigate damage from the devastating natural calamity. Enditem