World Tsunami Day 2022: Creating awareness about the big wave

New Delhi, Nov 05: Tsunamis are rare but deadly, early actions are effective tools to save lives, and prevent the hazard from becoming a disaster. The theme of World Tsunami Awareness Day 2022 in Asia-Pacific is Early Warning and Early Action Before Every Tsunami.

In December 2015, the UN General Assembly designated 5 November as World Tsunami Awareness Day, calling on countries, civil societies, and international bodies to raise tsunami awareness and share innovative strategies to risk reduction. This day was established at the suggestion of Japan to call on countries with UN Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) facilitating the observance with the rest of the United Nations system.

The first global disaster risk reduction agreement

In the last 100 years, 58 tsunamis have killed over 260,000 people, more than any other natural disaster. The highest number of deaths occurred in December 2004, when the Indian Ocean tsunami hit. It caused an estimated 227,000 fatalities in 14 countries, with Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, and Thailand hardest-hit. After three weeks after the tsunami, international community assembled in Kobe, Japan, to adopt the 10-year Hyogo Framework for Action. This was the first comprehensive global disaster risk reduction agreement.

Growing Tourism with rapid urbanization in tsunami regions is putting even more people in jeopardy. Coastal communities are the most vulnerable when at risk. The world should make everything possible to achieve a substantial reduction in disaster mortality.

The story behind the date

The date November 5 is based on an anecdote and one example of a practice known in Japan as "Inamura-no-hi" which means (the burning of rice sheaves). This practice took place on the 5th of November 1854 during a giant tsunami disaster that resulted from Ansei Nankai Earthquake.

The tsunami struck Hiromura, a little village on the Kii Peninsula in western Japan. Hamaguchi Goryo, a farmer noticed the lowering of the tide and a rapid decrease in the level of well water (a natural tsunami warning sign). He directed his villagers to vacate to higher ground by setting fire to his precious sheaves of rice, the whole year's harvest, as a signal of warning. From the top, the villagers saw the tsunami demolish their village. They then understood that it was the fire that rescued them.

Japan proposed this date because it is intended to serve to protect the lives of people, and it should be associated with an example of "classic, indigenous, local knowledge and practices" such as 'Inamura-no-hi.'